March - The Best Month of the Year?

It has only taken thirty odd years of pondering plus a return to living in the countryside for me to conclude that March might just be my favourite month of the year. Possibly. Probably.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Why?

In this month, more than any other I can be pretty certain of indulging in the majority of my favourite activities. More significantly the garden is also coming back to life, and although we can be visited by butterflies and bees on warm days throughout the winter, by March they are coming and going on a daily basis, come rain or shine.

Evening slug patrols begin, both for me and the hedgehogs, although their numbers are decreasing here too.

The first asparagus is a possibility and as long as the winter wasn't too harsh, globe artichokes are a given.

Artichokes are a given in early spring.

The first asparagus of the year.

We no longer have to pick our walks to make sure we stay on the sunny side of the valleys as the warm air is now seeping even down the north facing slopes. While primroses have been in bloom on the south facing slopes for a month or so, they are now flowering freely everywhere.

The motorcycles have been moved back out of the corner of the garage and the dustsheets removed as the car gets relegated to living outside once more. We might get a light frost and maybe even a dusting of snow but the days of windscreen scraping are firmly behind us. Day rides are a possibility, rather than just being limited to a quick blast before the fingers become totally numb. 

And yet despite all this promise of warmth and approaching summer, we still have a few weeks of ski season to run. I like spring conditions, that brief moment of corn snow joy once the pistes have softened up after the overnight freeze and before they become knee deep (and knee breaking) porridge, and when you can get away without wearing multiple layers! 

Lunch break in La Mongie

Plus there is always the possibility of another snowfall and a powder day.

Powder Day in Lienz!

The doors and windows are wide open, the cat has been forced to seek some shade and the tomato and aubergine seedlings are poking their way through the compost and a swallowtail butterfly has just floated through the potager. March: what's not to like?

But on the other hand, here comes April ...