It Must be Spring...

... the view from my desk this morning tells me so. I'm excited, starting to plan for this year's garden residency with Mixed Borders, the Poetry School/Open Garden Squares scheme that plants poets in gardens all around London. This year, mine will be Markham Square in Chelsea - not an area I know well, so once again I'll have a lot to learn. I haven't been there yet...last year my first garden visit was a bit like a blind date - would I like the garden? Would the garden like me? Would I find gardeners and visitors willing to talk to me, interested in poetry?  Most of all, would the garden and its people inspire me to write new poems? This year you'd think I'd feel like an old hand... but  all the same thoughts are flying through my head. Then, as I'm writing this, I get a tweet from Jesse Muddyboots, the gardener at Rainham Hall where I was in residence this time last year. It really helps, starts to join up a few of the dots. Thanks Jesse.

 Chelsea buns, Chelsea boots, for a while perhaps I'll be a Chelsea girl in a Chelsea garden. Watch this space!