From my childhood spring began for me on the 1st day of February, St. Brigid’s Day, but it seems that spring 2018 began today, Tuesday 20th March, at 4.15p.m. While I might argue for old and traditional dates I couldn’t deny that today was the first day this year when the weather was truly spring-like.
We seem to have had an unending winter where storm followed storm, seemingly unending cold and wet days and, of course, The Beast from the East with unprecedented snowfall – twice! There was a feeling that the misery would never end so that today’s sudden and unexpected wonderful weather was all the more enjoyed.
With a certain “carpe diem” attitude we were out in the garden early this morning and remained there until five this afternoon, a full day and certainly the longest we had spent in the garden for quite a while. There were a number of jobs which had been on hold and needed immediate attention. The chatted potatoes were a priority – British Queens, a second early variety and a favourite with us – needed to be sown as did broad beans which we would normally sow in autumn but hadn’t got round to at the time. The kale had been stripped by pigeons during the cold weather and early sprouting broccoli had also attracted them though not to the same extent. I removed the kale and put netting over the broccoli and we will be enjoying it within a fortnight, I imagine.
I spent the afternoon on light jobs: moving some snowdrops and re-potting erythronium, trillium, gladiolus and lily plants which were in their second year and needed fresh compost and space to grow – and I took a few minutes to take some photographs.










