calm after the storms
25th February 2022
The last few days have been so windy! Three storms in a row have hit the UK in the last week, and I feared for our extremely wobbly conservatory. Fortunately, it, and my garden, seem to have escaped pretty much unscathed, and today the sun even feels warm.
A single crocus, in the strawberry bed
I am drinking my coffee on the bench in my garden, watching bees buzzing through the helleborus niger that is now in full bloom. I think they are honeybees, or perhaps an early miner bee, all the same gingery stripes colour. I can see a ladybird tucked up in one of the new, unfurling leaves as well, just peeking out as though it is preparing itself to fly.
Is it a honey bee? On helleborus niger
The pond is full to bursting, and I am thinking again about the sense of creating a small patch of wetland next to it to take up the excess water at this time of year. First I need to deal with the slimy algae that is beginning to grow there again already. Last year felt like a continual battle, fishing it out with a stick to prevent it choking all the plants. Sadly it did seem to kill off the water forget me nots. My reading over the winter suggests that perhaps straw or watercress might help, and it looks like I need to give one of those a go sooner rather than later.
Over by the shop a few streets away, I can hear the jackdaws yarking as they check last year’s nests in the big tree there. Two wood pigeons are crooning gently in next door’s tree as sparrows, tits and other small birds play in the birdbath. A solitary crow flaps silently into a tree and the wood pigeons shuffle to a different branch.
The first few plum blossoms against blue sky
I smell woodsmoke in the air, maybe someone’s log burner or maybe someone beginning to clear their garden for spring. It reminds me that I must prune the apple tree this week, and then we too can have a fire out here. It’s a bit early, yet, for more than that, though. We need a few more days of warmth for the hibernating insects to come back to life before I clear much more.
I don’t have long to wait. Already I can see a haze of green on the willows over the fence, and the over-hanging plum has a dusting of blossom. My beautiful macrantha x exchordia has tiny leaves and buds appearing, and the honeysuckle is already greening up well.
Early buds on macrantha x exchordia with honey suckle leaves behind it
It feels as though Spring is almost here, just about to peek over the fence and float through the blue sky. Today I shall top up the veg beds ready for a new year, and plant a few seeds to start off on the warm hall windowsill.