As exhausting and difficult as it was, of course everything passes and a new phase emerges. We survived the tiredness and the bad moods. Dave slowly became more mobile and more useful again and we could begin to get on top of the overdue chores – getting food in, cleaning, tidying and I tried to rest a bit. Once Dave went back to work we settled back into our routine that had been working well for us and pretty much managed to pick up where we had left off a month before.

The spring weather has been a nice mix of warm sunshine, cool nights and rain. Our fruit trees flowered, most notably the cherry that I planted two years ago. The wild things are coming to life this month – tender leaves are emerging on the ash and oak trees. The birds are making a ruckus rearing their young and the bees, butterflies and dragonflies are emerging from winter slumber.

After my Mum couldn’t come out to help us, she offered to pay for some gardening assistance so that we could get all of our spring sowing done. It just so happens that one of our friends is camping in the neighbours’ garden and was interested in some casual gardening work. So much to everyone’s delight, Nik has been busy weeding, rebuilding raised beds, making comfrey fertiliser, sowing seeds and planting out seedlings. It makes me so happy to go up to the garden now and see it all taken care of and I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. I have time to harvest and process a few things, so we have been eating loads of fresh herbs and greens, and using medicinal plants from our land. I am also slowly filling jars with dried herbs, saving up some of that spring abundance for the coming winter.

We have managed to dedicate a small amount of time to the garden and the house this month, which fills my heart with joy. One weekend Dave installed one of the windows we bought months ago. He had to grind out the space a little then fix the window in place. It was a small thing but a sign that things are improving.

This weekend we are just resting and enjoying ourselves. It has been raining all week but tomorrow we are due some sunshine!

-Anna