I loved the story of Persephone as a child. I love it more even now, I think, as my gardener’s seasonal instincts identify so closely with it. There are many versions, but the one I know goes as follows. Persephone is the beautiful daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Hades, god of the underworld and brother of Zeus, becomes obsessed, and violently abducts her, carrying her off to his subterranean realm, a moment fabulously captured in Bernini’s 1622 sculpture, below. (He was only 23 when he carved it. Maybe that’s why it seems so viscerally alive. The way Hades’ fingers press deep into her waist and thigh, her hand pushing him away, the triumphant look in his eyes… I must see it, one day). I digress.
Grief-stricken Demeter neglects the harvest to search for her child and the earth turns cold and barren. Eventually a deal is brokered via Zeus - Persephone may return to earth for six months of the year but must return to Hades for six months each year - one for each of the pomegranate seeds he tricked her into eating whilst underground.*
Thus spring begins when Persephone returns and Demeter rejoices. And when she returns to Hades at the autumn equinox as she must, the world turns cold as Demeter grieves again. **
My year feels similarly shaped, not from solstice to solstice, as it is for many, but from equinox to equinox. It is almost four months since the autumn equinox and only two months until the spring one, on March 21st, when the days will once again be longer than the nights. And so, like Persephone, I am on my way back.
I know that the day length in mid January is about the same as at the end of November, but it feels utterly different. November is dank, decaying, dark and depressing as the days progressively shorten. January feels brighter and lighter, full of promise, with a few minutes of light more each day. Buds are beginning to fill their casings and early shoots are starting to prise their way up though the frost-crackled soil.
First though, winter must take its bite. Two inches of snow this week followed by a deep frost have halted the rising sap and buried the emerging shoots. We recorded minus 8 two nights ago and it is minus 5C outside now. It is beautiful while it lasts of course, especially when lit by brilliant sunshine as it was today, and we are handsomely rewarded for leaving most of our perennials uncut.
Speaking for myself, I shall be glad when the mild weather returns and the land is released from its icy encasement. Twelve thousand bare root plants await our attention at the nursery, and my merry little band are itching to get going again.
For the moment though, winter holds us tight, until Saturday when we are due mild temperatures and storms. In celebration of winter’s temporary fling then, some snowy pictures from earlier in the week.
Now, a word of warning…. you may know that I installed a heat pump earlier in the year. I’m delighted to say it’s performing brilliantly right through this cold snap.
My next post will be a home-owners guide to heat pumps, which will answer all the questions I had a year ago and couldn’t find non-technical answers to. There will be no pretty pictures, I’m sorry to say, unless you like tanks and pipework. So, if you’re only here for the gardening, feel free to delete on sight.
A very happy new year to you all.
Sue
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Footnote… * that makes it two mythical stories in which a woman is lured into eating a morsel of fruit and then punished for it for eternity by a an all-powerful male supreme being. I’m not having any of it - I’m off to get some chocolate…
** You may know them as Proserpina, Pluto, Ceres and Jupiter. Think it depends if you’re reading the Greek or the Roman version. Still a great story.
I love your passion for heat pumps and very glad it got a mention. Photos defo!
What a wonderful read Sue. You write with such feeling, good humour and eloquence. Roll on Spring. I await your novel about a gardening sleuth whose partner is hot not only because he/ she is a whizz with heat pumps.