February fun
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THERE is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer,’ wrote Gertrude Jekyll (page 42), COUNTRY LIFE’S wise, early-20thcentury gardens writer, who knew a lot about the promise of colour to come. Her contemporary William Morris opined that, by March, one might hope that ‘winter’s woe’ was past: ‘So fair the sky was and so soft the air.’
Christina Rossetti grumpily opined that ‘February drips’, but Shelley—perhaps excessively—imagined it as a goddess ‘bending from Heaven’ to kiss ‘the forehead of the Earth’ and bade ‘the frozen streams be free’. It is true that it’s during this much-maligned month that the daylight hours, noticeably and cheeringly, begin to expand more rapidly. Even a few more minutes soften the brutality of the raw dawn for farmers and commuters.
Birds chirrup, anticipating courting, and snowdrops illuminate muddy woodlands and bleak hedgerows. Delightful overwintering birds—fieldfares, redwings, bramblings,
Bewick’s swans, woodcock—are still here; hellebore—the Lenten rose—and cyclamen shyly bloom this month and camellia buds swell with promise; the salmon-fishing season starts on most rivers, if you’re hardy enough.
This February has an unusual sweetness. Twelve months ago, churches were shut and choristers silenced, galleries and theatres gathered dust, publicans and restaurateurs feared for their businesses and their staff and hounds were shut up in kennel. There was no roaring on the rugby pitch, no moving rendering of Land of my Fathers at Cardiff; the reception for jockey Rachael Blackmore’s magnificent six wins at the
Cheltenham Festival in March was reduced to isolated whoops from racecourse staff and countrywide sitting rooms and triumphant owners had to be interviewed on Zoom.
Now, treats this month include Six Nations rugby (page 76)—weekends of pulsating sport and nationalistic emotion—the postponed Dürer exhibition at the National Gallery and Beatrix Potter at the V&A (February 9 issue), plus Monica Ali’s first novel for 10 years (page 100), soprano Joyce Didonato’s new CD, Eden, Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House and the RSC’S Much Ado About Nothing.
It’s time to book for The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage, Badminton Horse Trials, Raphael at the National Gallery, Chelsea Flower Show, Hay Festival, Royal Windsor Horse Show and Royal Cornwall Show, even a last-minute skiing holiday—all scuppered in 2021.
It’s not all a bed of snowdrops—daily Covid cases are still high, school life is disrupted, NHS waiting lists are dire and the vulnerable can only dream of the above delights —but this February has a lot going for it.