Janus week

This is a Janus week, facing forwards and backwards. We are still dealing with the last of the snow, which cars have impacted into ice on the track. However, the snowdrops are beginning to show their snouts, and there are suddenly green shoots all over the place. I took Miss Dog up to the garden centre today because I’d just about run out of bird food: she has to go on her lead once we’re near the road, and this proved highly hazardous, with the tarmac like a skating rink and Miss Dog providing powerful but erratic traction. I got my bird food, and some fertiliser for the naturalised bulbs on the banks – this is a good time to give them a bit of a boost – and some very splendid dahlias, orange and dark red. The dahlia moment is months and months away, and it’ll be some time before we can even plant them, but they are something to dream over for the time being. This is a Janus week in another respect as well. I’m still up to my ears in exam scripts, but soon that will be over, and then I can say goodbye to undergraduate teaching for a while, which, given the number of other things on the job sheet, is also something to look forward to.