Great, great beauty is happening all around my garden. I spend a small fortune and a huge amount of energy on keeping up this house and making the garden a place of tranquil beauty that I love to be in. I sometimes wonder what for.

The gloomy thing is that I rarely see it. I’m off again imminently to Madrid. My gorgeous things, that I long to be amongst, are going, once again to be gazed upon by a paid house-sitter and not by me. That’s rankling me tonight.

The drawing out of the evening light, coupled with the putting forward of our clocks last weekend, meant I got a few minutes of twilight tonight in which to get my camera out. The weeping pear (pictured above in the cold twilight) is just about to burst forth with its exquisite blossom, the damsons are forming now their blossom has blown, like snow, all over our world. The greenhouse is beckoning and saying ‘get those tomatoes planted, get those chillis planted, get those veggies out into the veg garden’ so we can taste their succulence again this summer, as we have every year.

I am struggling with the thought of being away again but this is still only the beginning of the long haul. As of tonight, 120 or so of our executive team have received their training (Sarah and I completed the training for 60 UK based folks this evening) and there are many more, around the globe clamouring for my services to get them up and running with it. It’s funny but the enthusiastic show of hands to help has dwindled fast as the pace of this thing gathers. It’s less funny that my own enthusiasm is flagging and I have to do this thing many more times before I’m done.

My weeping pear will flower without me. My veggies may or may not get planted and my spirit may or may not ever recover from this trek.

Still, in the spirit of looking on the bright side, I get a few days in Madrid, hopefully in the warm spring sun though the weather forecast isn’t marvellous and I will get some ‘quality’ time with DM who is joining me when my work schedule ends.

Last year, we were ending our adventure and this is who I miss when I'm gone.