Spring : a progress report

After two days of fairly torrential rain, with a whacking storm yesterday afternoon timed precisely to coincide with the kindergarten run, today we have a cloudy day with a noisy wind.

Spring is coming along quite nicely. This week's morning temperatures have been in double digits all the way. The gardens of the Alto Verbano are crowded with shrubs and trees in bloom - mimosa, camelia, magnolia, apricot - underpinned with daffodils, narcisi, primulas, periwinkle and tulips in-the-making. And the gardeners of the Alto Verbano are busy making pretty pictures out of flat beds of brown soil with stripes of variegated green lettuces and other salads.

In the House on the Rock, Jakob!, Lord of Misrule is growing like topsy. After three weeks in our midst, he has turned our (my) world upside down and inside out. There seem to be no limits to his mischievousness and ingenuity, but also to his canine intelligence, and so despite the havoc he has wreaked, we are very pleased with his progress in terms of "sit", "come", "lie down" and "fetch that cat". The cats are not so happy. Their ordered lives, centred on our little terrace, have been invaded by the monster with floppy ears and a large nose, and they have been driven out. Still, after 21 days of confusion now even the outcasts - those who are not allowed to set foot inside the house (order of the Big Tabby) - have discovered where the soup kitchen and sun deck has moved to.

In the bathroom, out of bounds to cats and dog alike, two hours-old chicks are nestling together under the warming lamp. From the incubator we hear chirping, the eggs are shivering occasionally and once in a while new cracks appear, so we hope for at least a couple more as Hatching Day wears on.

For myself? I'm horrified that Easter-with-houseguests is only a week away, the house is a disaster zone, and I've done almost no planting whatsoever. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those years...