Spring Awakening
2 April

Here are some of the ways that I know that spring is coming.

• the first tangy scent of rhibes flowers in the park
• the first load of washing hanging on the carousel outside in the garden
• the first early morning cup of coffee drunk outside
• the first glass of wine shared with a friend seated round the garden table
• the first butterflies
• the first magnolia flowers in the neighbouring gardens
• the first blossoms on our plum tree
• the first day's gardening
• the first session watering the garden
• the first evening when I arrive for a yoga session in the light
• the first hard, conical shoots from the hostas
• the first games of bowls on the park greens
• the first scent of new mown grass
• the first explosion of citric yellow as the forsythia flowers

And, in keeping with the coming of the sun and the change of the hour, Ross and I have been doing some social eating this weekend. And it's all been at the Bistro Jacques.

On Saturday night we met up with people from work including Ian and Chrystelle, Steve and Chrystelle, Mitch and Laura and Kamal. That was a good night.

The following, Sunday, afternoon we met up with Ross's parents, his grandad and his brother, Sam. And we had another excellent meal.

It's not often that you eat somewhere two days on the trot and can walk away saying that you would be quite happy eating there on another occasion.

Elsewhere, I have now completed The Curse of Salamander Street by G P Taylor. I've already experienced and enjoyed Shadowmancer and Wormwood. I didn't like Tersias as much. This new novel I liked even less. I found the prose style leaden, the Christian allegory even more lumpen than C S Lewis and the plotting and characterisation unremittingly obvious. It just feels as though this author has gone right off the boil.