Spring hasn't sprung yet!

We've had massive snow - eight inches and higher piled up against the back wall and patio doors - and a biting easterly wind. Supposedly the start of spring last week but it feels like midwinter. We keep getting hopeful of better weather but they're promising another week of cold and even more snow.  Last year by this date in March we had planted broad beans in the ground and started on the potatoes. This year the ground is frozen and/or waterlogged. It will be a few weeks before we can plant. I'm going to start off the broad beans in pots in the conservatory (the greenhouse is too cold) and hope that by the time they are big enough to plant out the ground will be warmer and drier.

Still - some bright spots: I crept up to the top of the garden yesterday evening and picked some rather sorry, snow-covered rhubarb. Some stems were frozen and broke off but I managed to harvest enough to make a rhubarb fool.

Here's a picture taken nearly 2 weeks ago with the snowdrops still blooming and the cocusses providing a splash of colour:

And this yesterday from the warmth of our bedroom window!

No end to the cold and wet

It's still very cold. After a wet weekend, with snow flurries on Sunday, this morning dawned with a heavy frost, the fountain frozen and a thick fog. The winter is really hanging on. And it's so wet!
There is a spring at the top of the garden which has never flowed so strongly. The drainage channels that feed the water feature and ponds are over-flowing and everywhere is squelchy.
Last year, in mid March, we had started planting broad beans and potatoes. I can't see that happening for another 3 weeks. The beds are much too wet to dig over let alone plant up. The potatoes in the unheated greenhouse which I planted up in November are only about 1 cm high! On Sunday I filled another couple of pots with compost (from our huge, 3-bay compost system) and installed them in the conservatory to warm up and plant up a few more spuds that are chitting. If we rely on outdoor potatoes we won't get any until August unless the weather warms up dramatically.

Hellebore Posy for Mother's Day

It's a cold day with snow flurries sweeping in from the north east. It's Mothers Day so I picked these hellebores from the garden to make a little posy for my Mum.

Hellebores from the garden make a lovely posy for Mum on Mothers Day.

First bees

We've had a few sunny days, although with cold nights. On Saturday morning I saw a few brave, or hungry, bees on the snowdrops, but none since.