Another little dose of spring or is it?

The grey blanket syndrome (when the patient feels as if they are struggling beneath a heavy grey army blanket like a bird caught in a net) which I know I am not the only one to be suffering from at the moment is not curable but there are things which like a paracetomol for a headache will provide temporary relief.  One such  remedy is a day out with friends and so I took myself off to Salisbury on Monday to meet a couple of friends.

We had met up at Fisherton Mill  a lovely gallery and cafe just a few yards from the station and a much more pleasant venue to wait for them than standing about on the station.as their train had been delayed "due to a fatality" as they say (I always wonder why it is the inconvienence that seems so important when some poor soul for whatever reason has lost their life).  I enjoyed an hour by myself looking at the wonderful crafts on sale in the shop and then sitting over a coffee whilst I waited.  The reindeer above was just outside and was huge, apparently 4 metres tall.  If you click on the link you will find out more about him.  I didn't see him lit with fairy lights as it was not dark but he was impressive nonetheless!

When my friends eventually arrived we wandered towards the town and passed yet more weird and wonderful animals this time a trio of different sized sheep - the fleece was made of strips of twisted metal and not the heavy yarn I had thought it might be from the other side of the road.  alongside the sheep were a reindeer and a cockerel!  These were all for sale at a secondhand shop called Allsorts.

We didn't buy any of the animals but made our way along towards the town past the Bishops Mill which is now a restaurant/pub on the banks of the River Avon.  We enjoyed our day together sitting having lunch in our favourite cafe, wandering round the shops, chatting and enjoying each others company.  After sitting over a cup of tea we suddenly realised it was time to get back to the station for our respective trains home and I bid my friends goodbye as they needed to rush and I had half an hour to while away so could take my time getting to the station (I can't run these days and they are both younger than I am!).  No sooner had they gone than the grey blanket fell again and the little hole through which I had seen our time together was no longer in evidence!  But the several hours I had spent in the company of good friends had been a welcome relief from the winter blues.

This morning I wandered round the garden and discovered some little primroses in bloom here and there.

This little dear is going to get trodden on between the stones of the path so I picked it and along with tow or three more and a couple of leaves and have them on my kitchen windowsill to remind me that spring will come again one day!

No daffodils in flower in my garden as yet but there are signs.

And some periwinkles in bloom against the wall.

This afternoon I walked up through the wood to the post offive to post a birthday card to a friend.  It wasn't cold and although not sunny like Monday there was a pale sun coming through the trees here and there.  The birds were singing and it sounded like spring.  I do hope they won't be fooled into nesting as we are surely going to have some winter weather eventually!

I passed a tree stump beautifully decorated with fungi.

 This one made me think of crochet and with its white edging I thought it a real source of inspiration though whether I would ever attempt to recreate it in crochet with beads or maybe stumpwork for the little mushroom balls I rather doubt especially in my current state of mind!

 Near the post office I noticed this pretty pink chaenomeles japonica in bloom.

 And on my way back through the wood some blackberry bushes in blossom too - when will we get the blackberries I wonder?

It is all very heartening to see these signs of spring and yet it also seems all wrong too.  Should I be rejoicing or worried about the climate change which is making everything flower and fruit at the wrong time of the year, the seasons to be so different, the floods and torrential rain in Cumbria not to mention the weird effects elsewhere in the world. Although I don't want it to snow and to have to totter along icy pavements I miss proper winter weather with frosty mornings and birght sunny days when your breath forms clouds in front of you and your fingers and toes are freezing.  Maybe it is a case of wanting what I haven't got or just another symptom of the grey blanket syndrome?