Editor’s Diary: Signs Of Spring

In this week’s Editor’s Diary, I’m seeing signs of spring everywhere!

Trees are bursting into leaf, birdsong fills the air and the countryside is lush and green. It’s a beautiful time of year.

Although, in my little corner of North-east Fife, the temperature remains unseasonably chilly . . .

We’re well into May, and on most days the thermometer is still reading single figures. Overnight frosts are not uncommon. Which isn’t good news for the garden.

Several weeks ago, fooled by a sunny spell, I headed for the garden centre to buy trays of bedding plants. Ever since, my poor petunias and lobelia have been huddled in a sheltered spot by the back door. It’s been too cold to risk planting them out.

Last weekend I decided it was time to move them on into my hanging baskets. One benefit of the delay was that they’d had a chance to become a bit bigger and better established. They’re going to look lovely in a few weeks’ time.

But . . . another sign of spring! The sparrows in my garden have decided the hanging basket liners are just the thing for feathering their nests. If they don’t stop plucking tufts out of the liners, my poor plants will have nothing to grow in!

Pink snow And rhubarb crumble

Another less destructive sign of spring is the cherry blossom. In my local park, a windy day resulted in it looking like there had been a fall of pink snow!

Photograph by Angela Gilchrist.

These beautiful blossom trees were supposedly planted in 1953 to mark the Queen’s Coronation.

Another sign of spring – the first home-grown rhubarb!

Rhubarb crumble was on the menu for Sunday dinner. It has to be the easiest and most satisfying pudding ever.

All you need are three or four sticks of rhubarb, sliced and sprinkled with a dessert spoon of sugar.

Rub 2ozs of butter into 4ozs of plain flour.

Stir in 3ozs of granulated sugar and spread mixture on top of the rhubarb.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180 deg. C. Bliss!

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