Spring Marches On

The sun of last three days has been making us believe that spring has finally arrived. The days are getting longer and the temperatures are at last climbing away from zero. The hedgerows and small trees have a bloom of fresh spring green from the emerging leaf buds. I love this time of the year.

I've finally been tempted out into the garden. There are tiny seedlings shooting every where in the garden and mostly where they're not needed. Masses of Love in The Mist seedling. Tiny violets everywhere and little shoots of the lenten Roses pushing up in the middle of them. Strange though theres not many weeds! I can see theres allot of digging and rearranging to be done.

These bright cream and yellow daffodils, nodding in the breeze work wonders uplifting the spirit. The little sweet smelling Daphne bush has been flowering away for weeks now. The tiny four petaled flowers are crammed along the twiggy stems of the young bush. The original Daphne bush on the same site died suddenly several years ago and about three years later this seedling appeared on the site of the old bush. I carefully protected and nurtured it and now it rewards me in early spring each year with these sweet smelling purple flowers before the leaves appear.

I was given the bulbs of these white and yellow variety several years ago by a gardener to one of the big houses over on Castor Hill. They have been multiplying in my garden cheering us up every spring since I first planted them.

My Carmelia is covered with flower buds waiting to burst open. It's grown bigger each year, not bad from a £1.59p potted plant from Morrisons supermarket. This perfect pink flower was the first one to brave the spring. I just hope the predicted -2 degree night temperature for Friday night doesn't materialise or I'll have horrible ruined brown flowers in its place.