Spring appears to have winter firmly grafted to it this year - like a frosty hitchhiker who is refusing to end it’s journey. Occasionally we glimpse a brief taste of spring with a warm breeze and sunshine lifting our spirits for a day or two and then we are thrown back into the chill of a winter we would dearly love to see the back of.
I am sitting at home on a wind whipped day with shrouds of grey drizzle crawling up the harbour and a fire glowing and creaking in the wood burner next to me. I am watching the greyness engulf the grass green hills of Banks Peninsula and the wind sculpt the water into the jagged and leathery texture of parched clay - as if water was something solid rather than an hydrous and uncooperative liquid. The mirror opposite the table where I am working has a similarly ragged appearance as blackened veins of cracked silvering track their way from the edges of the glass towards the centre. A delicate process that has taken a century to achieve unlike a brazen southerly wind that can churn a harbour in moments.
Despite the cold, I know that it is spring because the window reflected in the mirror frames a cascade of fluttering blossom - as if a swarm of albino moths has alighted on the bowed branches of our plum tree. The absinthe green of new spring growth pushes it's way through the petals and the whole seasonal array graciously obscures the jaunty angles, aluminium joinery and the more orange than cream wall of the neighbouring house. What a beautiful backdrop is nature.
With the wintry weather inhibiting the full appreciation of spring’s beauty, I find myself on gloved and coat clad walks furtively snapping little twigs of blossom and other specimens of spring’s abundance to bring home and balance in the delicate vase on the bathroom windowsill or gather bouquet like in the glass jug on the dining table. This year I am needing to bring spring indoors.
 At Haunt we are continuing the theme of bringing nature indoors with armfuls of leaves and blossom being dragged through the showroom and crowded into containers - petals strewn across the floor like floral feathers. Last week we hung this glorious French tapestry on the back wall. It is an early 20th century copy of an 18th century “ verdure “ tapestry in the celebrated “ rustique “ style of Aubusson - once again nature provides a decorative and exquisite backdrop.
Let the weather do what it may - we now have flowers on the tables and an entire forest on the wall.
Spring has arrived.