THERE’S A VIRGINIA CREEPER

that grows in our courtyard. It has pretty much colonised the entire road, and become the stuff of legend among our neighbours. From a trunk about as thick as my leg in our small flowerbed, it has spread its leafy vines all the way up and down a shared servitude, clothing several property walls with a lush green collar. Some have even strung trellises across their courtyards to enjoy its cool shade in summer.

Virginia, as she’s now affectionately called, is also the first sign of spring in our ’hood, and each year it’s like someone’s flipped a switch. One day the plant is its dormant, wintry, brown-thicket self … then, within a week, there’s a dappled pattern of green everywhere. Looking out of the kitchen window now, the first green shoots have appeared – just in time to celebrate the Spring Issue of VISI.

Virginia is also a potent reminder of seasonality and change – the force

that through the green fuse drives the flower, as Dylan Thomas writes in his beautifully dark poem. It’s been a long and unusually cold winter, with chills brought on by more than just the dip in temperature. More than ever, I’m looking forward to the segue of spring through to summer – and I trust that, like Virginia, VISI 116 signals exactly that.