Just when you thought it was safe to go out into the garden, along comes… “The Beast from the East”!

This time last year I was cutting my lawn for the first time. That’s not going to be happening for a while this year. On what is officially the start of meteorological spring, it is blinking freezing and blowing a gale. The Christmas carol “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” comes to mind…

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

It is certainly not a day to be spending long in the garden and I have received many pitiful looks at work today. I actually haven’t been outdoors too much, instead I’ve been making some new tabletops to replace some rotten old ones. I did, however, venture out to fill up all of our bird feeders. I wouldn’t like to be one of our feathered friends on a day like today.

Despite the weather I did still manage to find some beauty in the gardens.

Wintery scene outside ‘Woodview’

Some flowers have appeared and are probably regretting coming out early.

Snow covered Daffodil

This beautiful crocus appeared a couple of weeks ago, adding a bit of colour to one of the flower beds near the hospice entrance.

The dogwoods have been looking resplendent, whilst much of the rest of the garden is looking a bit tired and dull. I’m so glad that last spring I hacked them right back in order to renovate them after years of neglect.

My final picture is of a frosty bulrush, although it should actually be known as “reedmace”. I love bulrushes! I’m not quite sure why I like them so much, but I think it goes all the way back to Moses! When I was Christened I was given a Children’s Bible, and one of my favourite stories was of Moses being placed in a basket in the bulrushes in order to escape the tyrany of the Egyptian Pharoah. There was an accompanying picture, which is probably why I liked the story, showing Moses in the bulrushes (reedmace). They don’t actually have reedmace in Egypt, instead they have Scirpus Lacustris, which is a true bulrush and which looks very different. Anyway, what I call bulrushes were mistakenly in the picture of Moses! I then remember seeing bulrushes (reedmace) in real life and being fascinated by their unusual velvety look , a bit like a sausage on a stick. They are not terribly pretty for much of the year, and they can be invasive if not well managed, but I like them anyway!

A Bulrush by the pond

This winter hasn’t been easy, what with Dad dying and then getting the nasty cold/flu bug that’s been going around. It seems to be going on for a long time. And for gardeners, there isn’t much to do during this period, so I haven’t been going into work as much. I have realised that the lack of work and exercise, the cold, dark days, and the bereavement, has left me feeling a bit low. So it has been good for me to pick up my camera and to look around the gardens at work for something to blog about.

And fingers crossed soon I’ll be able to sing “Spring is Here” by Frank Sinatra.