I'm no gardener. Heck, I don't even own one! But, I do enjoy the occasional episode of Gardeners' World and, especially, its key presenter, Monty Don. C'mon, who doesn't? Other than being aware of his battles with depression, I know very little about the man, but he just seems like a really nice fellow who, furthermore, has a real empathy with the natural world I only wish more would subscribe to. Recently, an entry from his book - The Ivington Diaries - came up on my social media feed from the website: Diaries of Note. It's beautifully written and describes precisely what I (and I am sure most), also, feel about this very special month.
23rd May 2003
"When I die I shall go to May. It will be green. Not environmentally correct, for things will just be, without measurement or judgment, but actually the colour green in all its thousand shining faces. Every day will feel like Christmas Eve when I was ten. Every green leaf will be perfection exactly as it is and yet will grow and change every time I turn my eyes to it. Every moment will be like the arc of a diver breaking the waters of a green lake. I know this because this is what May is like here and now. Almost unbearable really. It does not hold for half an hour. Yet in the shifting, growing hymn of light and colour and leaf is the still, simple reason that I garden".
