Spring means all of these things:

 

Unpacking artworks and getting them out of storage and into place is a literal revelation as the garden fully shows itself and iFinlay’s intent with different levels of meaning and ways of seeing. It is at once a very simple proposition and an encounter with complexity. 

 

All of the inscribed wooden benches are given a coat of linseed oil, the pink cube form and Claudi bridge are painted and refreshed.

 

Some further seed sowing is crammed into an already full greenhouse after a few more overwintered containers are put out. Row upon row of pots line the benches and floor. The annual hope in small things.

 

The Kailyard is readied for the season and now that there is also more space and light in the Allotment from removed trees we will see if we can profit from this. The strawberry bed here (seas leaves / strawberries waves) is planted up. The troughs by the entrance gate (strawberry camouflage / fete de fraises) are also tidied and filled out.

 

The brick plinth for the Virtue is Harmony panpipes is rebuilt – it has had to be slightly relocated in the same area as there was too much ground disruption from the spruce which was uprooted here. A new tree will soon be planted. Harmony will return to a virtuous place.

 

The remaining brick paths and patio areas have been given the jet wash treatment, a messy job now all completed. 

 

Much of the wood from the fallen trees has been split and stored as logs. A full and orderly woodshed is a pleasing and rewarding sight. Some of the larger wood is also cut as timber and planks to be seasoned and saved for future projects.

 

All of the rubble and remaining waste from the storm damage is piled up in a builder’s skip and removed.

 

The first grass cut gets this regular sequence going again as any remaining debris is cleared from lawns and paths, bare patches and damaged sections are top dressed and reseeded. 

 

The drystone dyke at the entrance which had collapsed is remade – its new neatness shows up the irregularity of its counterpart on the other side of the A Cottage / A Field / A Plough gate which is bulging badly and could do with similar attention. Sections of the damaged brick paths are being repaired. Many of the hand made bricks and pavers cannot be reused but we are trying to salvage and match things as closely as possible to the original.

 

The purple-blue-pink flowers of pulmonaria line the edge of the Temple pool with narcissus ‘sailboat’ by the Scallop shell font, primroses and dog’s tooth violets jostle along the edges of pathways in the woodland, while on the hillside daffodils give way to bright gorse bloom, a continuity of golden yolky yellow.

 

Cherry, pear, blackthorn and hawthorn produce a profusion of blossom. 

 

On just about every branch there is lustrous green budding – now we can safely say the garden is risen from darkness. Earth lifts light into flowering.