It’s a funny old year…

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Time flies as you get older – and this year has certainly flown.

It doesn’t seem like a year ago that the news was broken to the world that Symbian was changing.  A lot has happened in the year – a change as large as the one Symbian underwent can’t happen overnight! – but still it doesn’t seem like twelve months ago!

I wonder whether it’s a sign of age that the years are going more quickly.  Or maybe it’s having a garden…

Since we’ve had a garden at home, the seasons fly by so quickly.  One minute you’re watching the leaves brown as the view from the view turns from verdant to winter and as soon as the Christmas lights are taken down you see the first signs of the crocus pushing their way bravely through the frozen earth in search of some winter sun.

The flurry of bulbs – daffodils, tulips, hyacinths – pushes on through the spring, and is soon joined by the white sprinkling of magnolia.  As the spring marches on, the vibrance of the summer colours start to spring forth – pink roses, pink lavatera, blue agapanthus and the exotic passiflora. 

All too quickly, the summer sun sets in the sky and the colourful splendour of the garden returns to the lush green covering which revives the vernal memories of when the flowers were but buds.  The plants work hard to prepare themselves for winter – green shoots turn brown as they lignify against the winter chills.

The autumn winds rustle the now-fading leaves and one by one, the leaves cede to the gentle pressure of the incessant winds and fall to the floor, leaving the xyloid skeletons of the summer growth to survive the frosts and the snows.

A flurry of cyclamen signals the end of another year as the winter jasmine starts budding up and the crocus prepare themselves, deep underground, to herald the start of another year.

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