Great cloudage for Matariki

It’s a red letter day. I have spent all afternoon in the garden, planting, pruning and picking. Hooray! My energy is returning. 

I planted about 75 daffodil bulbs which G gave me yesterday. They’ve all gone into the dahlia bed which looks bare in spring until the peonies appear.

Then I took my loppers into the soft fruit cage and pruned the redcurrants and the goosegogs, raked up the cut branches and piled them onto the rubbish heap in the corner of the property (we all need one).

Finally it was time to dig a leek, a couple of (giant) parsnips and a bucket of pink fir apple potatoes.

It was wonderful to get grubby clothes again, for the first time in four weeks.

It is Matariki today: the first day of the new year in the Maori calendar when the Pleiades star cluster reappears over the horizon, back from its winter break above the northern hemisphere. 

Bean and I had a lovely walk in the sunshine at lunchtime beneath the most amazing clouds. The numerous lenticularis show that it was windy up there, but not at ground level where it was 17C: not bad for new year.

A great day…