Spring Firsts and a Captive Flower.

After the blackcap’s visit yesterday, I saw the first ant and the first bumblebee of the season today. The swathes of daffodils are now rampant with trumpets, the early perennials are greening up nicely, and the little redcurrant bush is in full leaf.

I saw a daffodil lying on the lawn, broken off at the base and probably the casualty of a clumsy pheasant. I brought it in and put it in a small vase of water in my office, where it now adds a little additional colour to the green house plants.

But, do you know, I’m not terribly keen on seeing cut flowers in a house. There’s something of human artifice about a flower ripped from its parent plant and standing incongruously in a glass vessel filled with tap water. It always puts me in mind of somebody on a life support machine, or – worse still – the sort of thing you would find on a Borg spaceship.