May in the city

May is, by a long chalk, my favourite month. After the cool days of March, and April's particular 'but you'll still need a jumper' brand of warmth, May comes a-rollicking, bringing sunshine and lush verdant growth. The city comes to life with the sights and scents of summer: shop planters hang with geraniums and ivy, deciduous street trees again give dappled shade, and the world seems a little brighter, a little kinder.


And yet, while temperatures soared, the country was plunged into winter on Monday night following the devastating bombing here in Manchester. Words can't express the feeling in the city. And yet, despite everything, the week has seen people come together, holding vigils, offering free hugs - and laying a carpet of flowers stretching across St Ann's Square, their beauty and heady scent helping heal the city.


While the city heals, summer continues apace.

The tentative seedlings of spring become established, and for me, the windowsill comes into its own as a greenhouse and test bed in one. A shop-bought stump of lemongrass is finding new life in a pot by a warm window, and the delicate leaves of aubergines and chillis, which will stay indoors, reach gallantly window-wards. 


It's exciting to see choice cuttings, rampant pumpkins and leggy lupins sprout forth with joie de vivre, nurtured in the house but ready for the great outdoors.


And when it finally comes time to set them off into the wild? Where can they go, when you have no outdoor space?

You'll have to wait for my next post - it's a real adventure in urban gardening!

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