Work for the week

WINTER: It was warm enough one afternoon last week for a stroll around the garden, and in one of my favourite stopping places I watched a cloud of midges, out of their winter sleep, dancing in the still, sunlit air.

On a west-facing ivy-clad wall, large pregnant blue-bottles were sunning themselves on the variegated leaves, having supped on the dark juicy berries. Is this where these dipterous creatures overwinter? It makes me wonder.

The small, round, unfamiliar sun, flat as a sovereign thrown on a grey silk tablecloth, shone from a denim-blue sky and in a moment of relaxation I could have sworn it was April. Nearby, a shoot of fuchsia, a scrap of campanula and a late rose bloomed.