According to the BBC weather forecaster this morning March 1st is the first day of spring. Looking out of the window it seems very doubtful. It’s as dull and overcast as it was yesterday, which was, presumably, the last day of winter. For me it is the nadir of the year. I find the short, miserable days of winter difficult to say the very least. And February is definitely the worst month. Winter has already taken it’s toll. It’s weeks and weeks since the, possible, high of Christmas. New Year’s resolutions have either gone by the board, or become part of life. Being retired, there is no necessity to force oneself out of the door to go to work. The golf course has been closed on and off, and , when it is open, the weather makes golf uncomfortable and undesirable. So there is little incentive to leave the house unless there is shopping to do. The result has been that February has been spent mainly indoors! Depressing and not healthy.It hasn’t even been a profitable time. The house doesn’t look any cleaner, and I haven’t read anything particularly productive.
There have been a couple of exceptions. The Roman Museum had another of it’s series of talks about various aspects of ancient Rome. The speaker was Judith Affleck, the guiding light behind my Latin lessons, who is used to teaching a roomful of grammar school boys. She coped magnificently with the audience of grey haired museum volunteers, talking about the influence of women on the emperors. She focused on the most famous two, Livia and Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero. The picture shows a depiction of the latter appearing to ‘crown’ her son emperor, an amount of power unheard of for women at the time. That was certainly worth making the effort to go out in the cold! Agrippina is one of my favourite ancient women. Boy, did she have balls!
To be fair, I did get out on to the golf course – once! Just nine holes, on my own as a practice, with Paul carrying my bag – bless him! 
One other good thing last month. Referring back to last month’s blog, I did actually get my tickets for Richard ll. It took 40 minutes to get two tickets,and I had to sit and watch tickets disappear before my eyes as I tried to transfer them to my basket, but I got them. David Tennant, you had better be worth it! For anyone who isn’t a Member of the RST there doesn’t seem much hope of getting anything except those tickets available on the day of performance.
Now that spring is officially here, perhaps things will improve. It’s not so much the basic weather, it’s one’s attitude to it. In February it’s so long since autumn, and so long until spring. Now March is actually here, and it is OFFICIALLY spring, optimism can begin to creep in. There have been walks at Ragley Hall during February, for the snowdrops, but it’s been far too miserable, wet and cold. Perhaps this months, to see the daffodils, will be a better option. Whatever, it must be better than February, surely.
