Old and new: life in the garden

This time of year is always so exciting; seeing the world come back to life!
I wander around my little garden, musing over developments with my morning cup of tea. I love the anticipation; looking for much loved plants beginning to emerge after their sleepy winter, and equally the surprise of seeing something for the first time, especially having completely forgotten that I had planted it in the first place!
I had picked up this simple little primrose for 50p from the charity stall in the market last autumn, having no idea of the colour at all...!


My garden is now three years old, and I feel an enormous satisfaction seeing autumn plans come to life over the course of the following year.
However, one of my favourite happenings in the garden at the moment is a quite serendipitous combination of the bright new pulmonaria flowers and spotted leaves seen through the burnt, rusty coloured sedum heads, left from last year.


We are always inclined at the start of the new year in January to sign off on the last and start a fresh. And yet here in my garden is a beautiful demonstration of how the remnants of past seasons go on to inform the developing masterpiece; nothing is ever really over, or ever really forgotten.
As I sit and ponder this with my morning tea I feel happily comforted. Life is a collection of experiences, one informing the next, and still the most beautiful moments are always the ones that happen by accident.