Well, now: the Spring Equinox. Come with sunshine – and more than the odd hour or day. This whole last week, in fact, has been really rather lovely. Washing has been drying outside. Walks have been pleasant. I haven’t felt like I’ve loaded the pram with everything bar the kitchen sink every time I’ve left the house, just in case.

And we’ve finally managed to get out to the yard to assess the damage of the last few months of relentless rain. To begin planning for the summer.

See what has survived.

Fortunately, we think we’ve only lost the one plant, which we can’t remember what it was, so that’s no great loss. And the strawberries, which sent out lots of runners last summer, have laid lots of baby strawberry plants all along our long planter.

The rosemary is laden with flowers; clearly quite happy too.

The fig, while still with us, has lost a lot of its home. There was a layer of bark in with the compost, and that seems to have broken down. So the big planter now looks like its lost half its contents. Ho hum.

Nor, it seems, did the playhouse survive unscathed. Various roof tiles and wall-planks have fallen, and the front door is rather loose and liable to fall apart. Win some, lose some. Not a particularly expensive house.

For this summer, however, we have Plans. More planters, a built-in BBQ, and the removal of various fences which used to keep dogs in. And then we’ll do something about the concrete ground to make it a bit more suitable for small children to play on. Still deciding what, exactly.

As for the playhouse, I have thoughts of a sweet-pea house, perhaps over the frame of the current playhouse, but we’ll see what happens when we get to it.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the sunshine, even with the half-five wake-ups, because Sun’s Up! Time to Wake Up!