‘The vernal equinox has come too soon’ is, Him Indoors assures me, the opening line of a welcome ode written to celebrate the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to his school at some point in the 1960s. I have never been able to verify this … However, this year, the vernal equinox has come bang on time (it can fall on the 19th, 20th or 21st March, apparently) to celebrate the anniversary of my New Life.

Admittedly, there is no eclipse of the sun this time, and not even a Supermoon, but the International Day of Happiness is happening, and as I was spending the day partly with the Turners at the Tate and partly with my granddaughters, that worked out well too (though I have to admit that walking past the ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ crew outside Parliament dampened my spirits temporarily). Other causes for happiness are the wren in the garden this morning before I left:

Thomas Bewick‘s wren.

my Magnolia stellata (in spite of the efforts of the winds over the last three weeks):

and these various sightings in Cambridge and London over the last few days:

So here’s to the next year of so-called retirement!

Caroline