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Spring has arrived as though a cosmic switch has been thrown Spring has arrived as though a cosmic switch has been thrown
(5 months later)
Walking up from Cressbrook towards the cottages at Ravensdale, I pass a young woman holding the lead of a muscular terrier in one hand and a spray of green leaves in the other. She offers a shy but conspiratorial smile of greeting and continues down the hill. I pause to identify what plant she is holding and, when I do, I have a small revelation.Walking up from Cressbrook towards the cottages at Ravensdale, I pass a young woman holding the lead of a muscular terrier in one hand and a spray of green leaves in the other. She offers a shy but conspiratorial smile of greeting and continues down the hill. I pause to identify what plant she is holding and, when I do, I have a small revelation.
Spring has arrived as though a cosmic switch has been thrown and a billion actors have sprung on to a brightly lit stage to perform tasks unexpectedly delayed with twice the usual energy. The river Wye in Monsal Dale was crowded with birds – a dipper working a broken patch of sparkling water too engrossed to notice me parking on the bank opposite. Lambs curled in the lee of small outcrops, soaking up the warmth of the sun, made me doubt that only a few days ago deep drifts of snow had buried many of the Peak District's cliffs, like Dr Foster, up to their middle.Spring has arrived as though a cosmic switch has been thrown and a billion actors have sprung on to a brightly lit stage to perform tasks unexpectedly delayed with twice the usual energy. The river Wye in Monsal Dale was crowded with birds – a dipper working a broken patch of sparkling water too engrossed to notice me parking on the bank opposite. Lambs curled in the lee of small outcrops, soaking up the warmth of the sun, made me doubt that only a few days ago deep drifts of snow had buried many of the Peak District's cliffs, like Dr Foster, up to their middle.
But it's when I recognise that small collection of leaves that I realise what else I've been missing: smell. It's not just the warmth of spring that draws us outside; it's the realisation that a sense made redundant through the elongated winter is stirring again – and with it, memory.But it's when I recognise that small collection of leaves that I realise what else I've been missing: smell. It's not just the warmth of spring that draws us outside; it's the realisation that a sense made redundant through the elongated winter is stirring again – and with it, memory.
Hurrying deeper into Cressbrook Dale, and off the road, I soon come to a familiar stretch of woodland whose understorey is carpeted with the foraged ramsons, or wild garlic, I'd seen minutes earlier, on its way no doubt to enliven a salad or, more exotically perhaps, a saag aloo. My interest is not culinary but in the characteristic scent a wide expanse of ramsons will generate. Here in the sheltered dale, there is enough warmth to generate a powerful stink, but to add to the effect I pluck a half-broken leaf and crush it under my nose. Dormant neural networks burst into life, returning me instantly to every spring I've ever experienced – and flooding my body with a sense of wellbeing.Hurrying deeper into Cressbrook Dale, and off the road, I soon come to a familiar stretch of woodland whose understorey is carpeted with the foraged ramsons, or wild garlic, I'd seen minutes earlier, on its way no doubt to enliven a salad or, more exotically perhaps, a saag aloo. My interest is not culinary but in the characteristic scent a wide expanse of ramsons will generate. Here in the sheltered dale, there is enough warmth to generate a powerful stink, but to add to the effect I pluck a half-broken leaf and crush it under my nose. Dormant neural networks burst into life, returning me instantly to every spring I've ever experienced – and flooding my body with a sense of wellbeing.
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