Shy Spring Day

Although there have been signs of Spring on the way for a while, today feels different. Perhaps because February is gone and it is now March. Even when it isn't a leap year, February seems a long month despite the fact that it's always the shortest. In these new, early weeks, Spring is like a shy lady, quietly present but modest and retiring. She shrinks from wearing anything too bright or gaudy, preferring the palest colours and the most delicate fabrics - fragile pinks and primrose yellows, soft lime greens and gauzy purples with only a demure blush of occasional red. Not yet has she moved into the deeper, more confident, more vibrant colours of the weeks to come. This morning she arrived, cold-fingered and distant, swathed in a white, lacy mist that veiled her face, but the sun has coaxed her out of her reticence and her shy smile is written clearly in the blue March sky.

I know we have turned a corner because...

1 there are now eggs in the nest box most days (as well as some being laid elsewhere I suspect, by Patsy, who prefers to do her own thing and leads everyone a merry dance trying to locate her latest nest site. Under the quince bush is a favourite or among the tangled roots of the climbing hydrangea.)

2 the bees in the hive we host are busily beginning to sally forth in sorties and coming back with their legs weighed down with deep, orange pollen from I know not where. Possibly, looking at my photo, from the purple crocuses. Crocus honey... sounds wonderful!

3 the rhubarb is emerging in slender, crimson stalks with bright, curly new leaves in the vegetable patch

4 the first delicate, pale pink blossom is out in the cherry tree

I made lemon curd today as a statement that I feel it is now officially Spring. I use Delia Smith's recipe - it's very good and absolute childs-play, although you have to be patient for it to thicken properly. It means Spring to me because it needs quite a lot of eggs and the tang of fresh lemons is somehow so evocative of everything good about Spring. When H was very small he used to love to stir the mixture over the simmering water even though he had to stand on a chair and reach up to be the correct height to wield the wooden spoon. Nowadays he has the opposite problem and has to stoop!

I am not the only one to head for lemons this week - Anne posted a great recipe for a lemon meringue pudding on her blog here. Have a look - it's delicious!

Here is my late afternoon's alchemy!

From these...

to this... 

to this...

to this!
And if you are wondering,
"How is she going to get the lid on the large jar without spilling any?",
I am wondering that too!

I love homemade lemon curd. It is one of only a very few things that I do actually taste, once it is made but still in the cooking bowl. I know it's bizarre but as a general rule I never ever taste things as I cook them. A seriously gifted cooking friend thinks I am crazy not to taste to check the flavour and he's probably right but once I taste things I lose interest in eating them when they are on the plate so it's a self-preservation mechanism really! Occasionally the seasoning isn't quite right but most of the time I seem to get away with it!

A Celebration of a Shy Spring Day