Bumble bees

Seen a lot of big bumble bees especially on the hellebores and heathers. We've had a lovely few days with quite a bit of warm sunshine during the day which has brought out the garden flowers nicely - daffodils, hellebores, primroses, little pink starry bulbs....I saw a deep red camellia in full bloom up by a house up on the main road and some ornamental trees looking gorgeous.

However, no honey bees yet. Maybe they are still being fed by their keepers and don't need to get out yet. Hope this isn't a sign of empty hive syndrome around here. There's loads of flowers, both in the garden and the surrounding fields and hedgerows. I can't believe that not enough food can be a problem for fewer bees. More likely disease or pesticides.

Flower show

I walked round the garden and took these photos of spring flowers. They really make a show, especially the heathers. There's quite a few butterflies - mainly peacocks - and some bees now. Hope there will be more bees when the fruit trees are in flower to make a good crop this year.

Daffodils and a shrub with delicate yellow flowers - don't know the name

Snakes-head fritillaries

Heathers have been flowering right through the winter - even in the snow

Primroses

Jetfire daffodils

Rockery Heathers

We escaped the snow that was threatened this week. We just got a sprinkling on Thursday night, but it has been very cold - minus 5-ish overnight. Today the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

Bright purple heather flowering in February despite the frost

One of the cheerful spots in the garden is our rockery which has a number of purple, pink and reddish heathers. I was advised to trim them over after they have flowered, but I tried it on one and it took 2 years to regain the level of flowers I had when I just neglected it. Maybe I did it at the wrong time but in future I'll leave them alone and just prune from the base to keep them in trim.

I took these photos of the rockery and heather a last week before the snow.

View of our rockery in February 2012