Ne’er cast a clout till May be out

Challenge: Lens-Artists Photo Challenge
Topic: #105: Spring

Next up on our seasonal challenges, this week we turn to thoughts of Spring. Noted by poets and lyricists as a season of hope and renewal, spring teaches us that despite (or perhaps because of) the hardships of winter, our world will once again blossom with new life.

Well what an odd season spring was this year, although official lockdown had not begun in the UK until a few days after the start of spring here, we had already begun to isolate a few days before. And so we have watched the entire season pass whilst we have been mainly stuck in one location. The trees budded and blossomed, seeds germinated and grew, and the year turned.

What a strange way to watch this happening all around us, we had unseasonably warm weather here in wales for part of it and I was forced to ‘cast a clought before May was out’! That is to say, my garden clothing had significantly lessened both long before the end of the month, and before the blossom was out on the hawthorn, so the bases are covered which ever way you choose to ascribe to the saying.

And so we watched a 1/4 of this year turn from inside our little bubble, spring sprang, and turned to summer. Some of you who follow my blog are aware that we go for early morning walks, up toward the ridgeway behind our house, this daily ritual connects us to the landscape in which we find ourselves living, it connects us to the passing of the seasons as we watch the landscape change. These walks, these precious little moments of time outside of our house and garden, open up a window into what is happening in the natural world, and in someways I have never felt, or needed a stronger connection to it.

We celebrated the coming and passing of spring, isolated from the physicality of the human world, but not from the natural world. The wonders of modern technology however have allowed us to remain connected mentally with those we love and care for, and as the season passed we could if not physically touch one another, still remain in someways, able to celebrate life, and community.

The May blossom came, and went, the year turned, if it felt that turning was at times inside out, but it moved forward, it continues to move forward, and so must we.

‘Ne’er cast a clout till May be out’
Brynna
2020

Ken