Hurry Up, Spring!

My spirits always drop as days get shorter and shorter in the run up to Christmas, but then immediately perk up with the expectation of Spring. I don't really expect it to arrive that early here in the Midlands but from early January I'm pottering round the garden trying to spot signs of wakening flowers, or leaf buds on shrubs, and this year was lucky enough to spot snowdrop buds and the first bergenia flowers by Twelfth Night.









With that, it's easy to believe the seasons have turned, and by now, in the middle of January, with the days noticeably longer, there's a definite change in the air...










... till Sunday, when snow fell again!


It's only our second snowfall of this winter, and, although it fell steadily for hours, rain soon washed most of it away. It will probably be back though - February half-term holiday is always a good time for snow here.

So while I wait, I'm planting pots and wall baskets outside with hardy polyanthus, and brightening up the house with forsythia, cut from my own shrubs and forced into early flower inside, and daffodils - both tiny ones grown in pots, and the cheap supermarket bundles, which look so dull when bought but within a day or so are a brilliant, sunny yellow. It makes me feel Spring will be here very soon ...