At last – the signs of spring. Our ornamental pear trees, which are planted along a side fence at the front of the house, have started to leaf out. They lost their foliage a lot later this year, and so I figured there would be delay in their blooming. For some reason, I got more anxious as the days went by with not a sign of a bud or leaf. In the backyard, Japanese Box planted late last year as a border hedge in the raised garden seems to be growing by the day – well, except for the individual plants that yellowed and died early, but which I didn’t pull out as a rallying cry for the other plants to avoid the same fate.

Best of all, the passion fruit vines that my grandfather planted last year have snaked around the trellis he put up and are flowering…and fruiting. Well, so far, we have one nicely shaped passion fruit and one that is the size and colour of a green olive.

I’m glad the cold weather is receding, and it’s cool enough to start to sit outside in the evenings. It really has been the winter of my (and many others’) discontent. It seemed like it would go on forever. It wasn’t so much the wet, winds inverting your umbrella, rain soaking your socks, kind of winter. It just felt very cold. I had a brief reprieve during a trip to sunny Cairns in August, but other than that, two blankets were kept on the bed at night, one of which would make its way to the couch in the morning while I’d have my morning coffee and toast.

I’ve also been unwell over the last month or so, probably because I haven’t been looking after myself. Not so much neglecting eating my greens, but I haven’t been engaging in much self-care, such as getting good sleep, exercising, and taking time to be do enjoyable things that take me out of my head and put me in the moment. When the idea of filling up the bath seems too much, you probably need to fill that bath. Yes, I’m aware of how privileged that sounds. I’m sorry. I am grateful for my bath. My tiredness and feeling sorry for myself has been exacerbated with a lot of work travel this year. It can – and did – wear me down.

Right now, I’m looking at the passion fruit vines. For people who are not natural green thumbs, Bob and I are really pleased with their progress. I kind of want to grab the (non-olive) one and exclaim like Ingrid Bergman in my favourite film, Cactus Flower, when her titular desk plant finally started to flower, “My passion fruit [obviously, she said “cactus”] – she is blooming!” The symbolism of the cactus or my pear trees is not lost on me. As Sarah Vaughan sings on the opening track to the film, “The Time for Love is Anytime”, which was produced by none other than Quincy Jones, “some flowers blossom late, but they’re the kind that last the longest”.

Like my trees, I think a lot of us are waiting for the renewal that comes with spring. We’ve got to play the long game and realise it’ll come…