The spring begins

After all the spring cleaning of the past few days, today turned into laundry day! 

I stripped The Traveller’s bed yesterday after he flew off for a quick visit to Barcelona, and this morning his washed bed linen was sitting in the ironing basket awaiting my attention. I then decided to strip our bed as well, turning the two zip-linked mattresses too while I was at it, and that made another load of washing. This afternoon I ironed everything on my trusty old rotary ironer (which makes it much easier to press 100% cotton super king sized sheets and duvet covers) and now it's all sitting in the airing cupboard. I confess to feeling a tad weary. 

I did treat myself to a short wander round the garden earlier with my camera, and took quite a few shots of seed heads, berries, sweet violets, snowdrops, a bird feeder full of sheep’s wool and a roosting pocket fastened to one of the shrubs. This solitary daffodil won the day as my blip, though, because it’s such a welcome sight for me. Since I complained yesterday about the lack of daffodils in my garden I have now discovered a few other clumps that are about to come into flower, but you could count them on the fingers of one hand. The rest seem to have done a disappearing act.

“For winter's rains and ruins are over, 
And all the season of snows and sins; 
The days dividing lover and lover, 
The light that loses, the night that wins; 
And time remembered is grief forgotten, 
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, 
And in green underwood and cover 
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1837-1909)