The snow has finally all gone, today the sun was shing and the sky a beautiful blue! At last I could get out and check on all my lovely winter flowers, no coat needed as it was nicely warm and even the bees were out buzzing and looking for pollen and nectar.
A nice clump of snowdrops without a label, I’m sure it had one originally, by the back door.
On one hand, we didn’t have as much snow as had been forecast, which is good, but we had enough to make driving a bit of a worry, it was very icy under the snow. Getting out of my little road and up the hill out of the village was a bit hairy, but once on the main road, everything was fine until I met a tree, half way across the road. Everyone was very gingerly driving round it, I gave way to an oncoming car, just as well, it was a police car! By the time I came home, one and a half hours later, the tree had gone. My first few photos were taken at 7 am when normally it is still dark outside.
L.ooking across the fields from the landing
I had thought that I would be photographing my little early flowers for the end of January, but Nature had other ideas. When I drew the curtains back this morning, everything was white, we had a sprinkling of snow overnight, but I don’t think it will last very long. This is when the evergreens take centre stage, they look so lovely with a sprikling of snow.
Starting with the front drive, the box cubes take on extra importance.
I spent an hour yesterday morning sitting in the kitchen watching all the birds coming to the feeders just outside the window, making a note as to how many I saw of each variety at any one time. This weekend is marked as the Great British Birdwatch weekend. I’m so glad I did my count yesterday as the weather was calm and just a bit dull in the morning, today we have a howling gale which is rattling all the roof tiles and I think all the birds might stay safely tucked up in bed if they have any sense!
The first to come was a bluetit, one of our most common birds in the garden here.
I bought a Hippeastrum, or Amaryllis, bulb in a box, from the garden centre, in fact I bought three, one for me, one for my daughter and one for my son, to give to them when I saw them at Christmas along with various other things. We are all having a wonderful time watching our flower stalks growing, photographing them and sending the photos to each other. I started mine off in mid December and it is just now that the first flower is fully open, patience is a virtue!
For a long time, mine just grew and grew, it ended up nearly 3 ft tall.
Any plant that flowers in January is a gem as far as I’m concerned, they are so precious, flowering at a time of year when most plants are still sleeping through the cold spell. A walk round half the garden is always worth it, there are little treasures to be found hiding in the dappled shade in the woodland or in the sunshine by the house.
I’ll start my walk as usual, by the back door where the chaenomeles is going from strength to strength in spite of our frosty nights.
I felt as though I had to write a post about this wonderful plant. Every year it starts flowering before Christmas and continues to flower for months until Spring is well and truly with us. Usually chaenomeles flowers in the spring, so why does mine start before Christmas, I thought the time had come to do a bit of research.
Wandering round the garden to see what is flowering on New Year’s Day could become a nice habit for me. We have been having a warm spell for the last couple of weeks and I think this has brought on some early flowers as well as the ones that should be flowering at this time of year. Each morning lately I’ve been turning the heating off it is so unseasonably warm.
Starting in the front garden, snowdrop Mrs. McNamara is standing up proud in spite of some rain.
Having a wander round the garden on Christmas Eve, I found a few more snowdrops flowering. The first one I found was by the front door almost hidden under the winter jasmine, either the jasmine must get cut back or I must move the snowdrops to somewhere where I can see them.
Galanthus Mrs. McNamarra. She hasn’t increased as well as the others, I think a move to better soil is in order.
To photograph the flowers in the garden I have been nipping in and out, trying to avoid the torrential rain, so I’m afraid this is a day late.
Starting by the back door, winter pansies are surviving all the rain in their pots.
