Days of wine and roses

And so we find ourselves at the end of the final day of March, with Spring in full swing outside, the countryside is alive, and I am enjoying my second week in a row at home, I have been working out, drinking and eating less. In short, I feel fine. April starts tomorrow, Friday, and then the weekend, during which we have been promised sunshine at least on Saturday.

But after the weekend there will be more traveling; Stuttgart next week, Dusseldorf the week after and then back to Denmark for more meetings and visits. That will take me to the last week in the month, 6 working days, and then we will be off to Japan; it really is that close.

And finally, when I return, the project will be in full swing, so I will be hither than thither visiting, auditing, inspecting and the such. And work and orchids and churches and beer festivals will take me through until the end of the year, and it will be Christmas before we know it.

The month has seen many things for me; a course in London, visit to our new nacelle factory, Easter at home, working in the garden, 3 days off in which I visited 11 churches. And then there was all the other stuff; cooking, orchid hunting, walking the woods.

We have gone from the cold and frost at the start of the month, to long warm spring days now. Last month the sun rose and shone onto the back of Chez Jelltex, now it rises way to the east, almost hidden by next door's house, and by the time it is in the south, shining on the back of the house, it is quite high in the sky, and its rays have plenty of warmth. Plants have grown, at times with astonishing speed, first breaking the surface, then racing, reaching for the sky. And it is all stuff we have done. To see life growing from the virgin ground, life that we planted several months ago.

Birds are nesting, in the front garden, the acers are putting forward new leaves, bring the garden alive with ruby red leaves. It really does feel like life is renewing itself, just another rotation in the circle of life.

I can't promise to post every day from now on, but I will post when I can, and in the next few months I can assure you that I will be visiting France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark and Japan. All exciting stuff, and now what counts as normal for me. Except the Japan thing, that is not normal, and it is so close now it is frightening, as we try to plan things to do so we leave and not be disappointed at stuff we might have missed. We shall see.

April will also see the 20th anniversary of my Father's death. I will not come over all maudlin, I think about him most days, and so won't miss him any more that day and any other, but 20 years is a long time, and almost a lifetime ago. I'd like to think he would like the life I have carved out with Jools and the cats down here in Kent.