New beginnings

Plant seeds are the most amazing things - all that information tucked away and ready to spring forth when the opportunity arises. It seemed appropriate to start this project with a symbol of possibility.

I love basil, and if I had to eat pasta sprinkled with a few toasted pine nuts, grated parmesan, a twist of pepper and a few sprigs of basil every day for a month I wouldn't complain.

I sprinkled these little seeds into trays on the 10th of March, and they have only just got to the stage of having their first true leaves begin to peek out (these fat round things are their seed leaves). The parsley I sowed the same day is streets ahead and already recognisable. But good things come to those who wait.

I don't have a garden (although I'm hoping to create one in the small courtyard below my flat), but the first thing I do when I open the curtains in the morning is mist the little trays of herbs and rotate them to straighten out the stems that bend towards the light each day - very therapeutic!

Spring has arrived with a vengeance at last, and I stole away from my desk this afternoon to see what I could find to share here. But despite taking shots of tree buds bursting out (almost impossibly green), fragile periwinkles shimmering in the shade and blazing yellow gorse igniting the hedgerows, I decided that my little babies best represented what I hope to do here. Perhaps I'll post a picture again when they're all grown up!