With morale increasingly low, and the Billy B increasingly full, this time of year if hard for everyone. A lot of work, a lot of grey, and a lot of cold!

But with blue skies *somewhat* more frequent (if we ignore the past week of storms), and spring seeming closer to the horizon, I thought I’d share my favourite, cliché (but for good reason), poem about spring, and in honour of springs best flower: daffodils – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Image credit: Yoksel via UnSplash

And here are the Editor’s Picks for the week!

Feel nostalgic with these primary school bakes! – Kate Langton

Plastic waste – the masked cost of the pandemic? – Joseph Spencer

Blizzard Theatre Company’s ‘Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads’ review – Carlotta El Hatimy

70 years of creativity – Rachel Barlow

Book review: ‘Into the Wild’ – Natalia Brudkowska