
Pressure dropping
Rain from the west
Due to fall
Maybe just April showers
We need it
We have fires burning
In the countryside
Dry March and April
And high pressure
Blue skies are lovely
Sunshine is great
But sometimes the rain
Must fall.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Pressure dropping
Rain from the west
Due to fall
Maybe just April showers
We need it
We have fires burning
In the countryside
Dry March and April
And high pressure
Blue skies are lovely
Sunshine is great
But sometimes the rain
Must fall.

What I suspected is true. Parts of the United Kingdom have had their driest March in 60 years. I even went out and watered my plant pots today as my daffodils are starting to wilt.
My Cherry and Pear trees still have tightly furled buds and are not showing any sign of opening, their blossoms held in stasis until the rain swells the plant cells to make them pop open.
March is usually wet and windy for at least part of the month. But not this year, the clouds lifted and blue skies sparkled. I guess the farmers are starting to panic now. It was so warm today I left my coat off and wore a tee shirt.

The wind blows
Catkins shiver
On the boughs
Blackbirds sing
Here is spring?
But we need rain
Not late March winds!
April showers
Would water the flowers
But their roots
Stay dry
Meanwhile
Sun shines.

I didn’t walk far in March but I did walk every day. I need to do more though. Anyway I made a pattern from my steps. As you do. Mostly short distances, a few longer ones. Nothing to show off about.

Buds are bursting
Leaves are appearing
Pigeons are roosting in the rain
The sky’s are grey
Ducks and geese wander
Round Westport Lake.
A gentle walk
Taking in the view
Dampened by the drizzle
Laceworks of twigs
Fill in the gaps
Soon there will be daffodils
Crocuses and tulips
Then May blossom.
March,
In like a lion
Out like a lamb
(or vice versa)
Soon to be revealed…..

St David’s day (the patron Saint of Wales 🏴), Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) and the (meteorological) 1st day of Spring. All tied up in one day this year, the 1st of March. I know shrove Tuesday moves around, its generally in February I think? It is connected with Easter which falls on a full moon? And also the 1st of March isn’t always on a Tuesday! So it drifts around the calendar. Also linked with Lent, giving up something for lent, like chocolate, is a well known thing that Christians do at this time of year. St David’s day is celebrated with daffodils, Wales with dragons. I wonder if they have dragons holding daffodils. Then the first day of spring? Apparently the actual start is later in March so this must just be a way of dividing the year up into four equal quarters. Time moves on.

Tulips in the kitchen. Now I need some daffodils for tomorrow which is the 1st of March and St David’s day.
Wales has many symbols, the daffodil, the leek and last but not least, the Welsh dragon that appears on their flag.
It is always good to get to March, it is the start of the Metereological Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. I expect we will be blasted by March winds. But tulips and daffodils cheer me up.

Flowers from a bush in our garden, tentatively matched in the Spring 2021 issue of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Magazine, page 13 in the Nature Spy section.
It says ‘Blackthorn is one of the first native shrubs to burst into flower around mid-Marsh.’ (I think it means March) ‘Its fluffy white flowers, tinged with pink, provide vital nectar for the first of the years butterflies, bees and flies. See how many different insects you can spot feeding on the blooms.’

A tiny flower
Promises so much.
Spring will bring
A cloud of purple
Buds and blooms
Life springs out
From cracks and crevices,
Waiting warm dew drops
To water them.
Ahh sweet smell
Of flora…

As the leaves fall the supporting scaffold of the tree branches and the new building skeleton across the road are becoming more visible. That building was being built in the early part of last year, but in March all work stopped. So it remains, almost, but not quite, built. When it is it will cut out the sunrise on winter mornings, shading out our rising star. I may get some of the lower branches of the trees cut back so that more light can get in. Maybe one day the building will be finished?