There Goes January

Sitting here on a mild and sunny February afternoon the short, dark days of winter do feel a very long way away. In fact we were extremely fortunate to experience really mild weather during the whole of November and December with only a couple of cold and crisp days. At times it was hard to believe that it was Christmas at all. Indeed Christmas came and went in a flash and was closely followed by an unexpected bout of flu. Thankfully I was only ill for a couple of days but I really have not felt so poorly for many years. M skipped the flu and moved straight to a lingering cold. However, I guess it's good to get all the illnesses out of the way at the start of the year.

When the frosts did arrive the woods looked lovely, coated in a fine dusting of white sparkles.

As the greenhouse is unheated I was hoping that our plants would survive the plummeting temperatures, at least they weren't covered in snow!!

The sunrise through the trees always looked wonderful, a little teasing that the winter was speeding past and hopefully spring would be along any time soon.

Winter is always very quiet in the garden, with the ground hard with frost there's not much to be done outside but plan for the year ahead.

We were astounded to see bulbs emerging during December, confirmation of the mild winter we had experienced so far. By the 2nd of January these daffodils were already looking great.

This photo was also taken on the 2nd January and probably the earliest snowdrops we've had here. It was wonderful to see such an early sign of spring.

Even some of the bluebells decided to make an early appearance.

After a serious lack of wood anemone flowers last year I was dubious that they would return and even less convinced that we would have any flowers. It was incredible to spot some tiny anemone plants and with a couple of fine flowers.

  

I never know when exactly the primroses are supposed to flower as we seem to see flowers almost all year round. These beautiful early flowers were brightening up the wild garden which was wonderful as so much else was dormant.

During the autumn I sowed some Red Campion seeds and in January they were just big enough to prick out and pot up into tiny cells to grow on. The tray was from my aunt so this was the first time I had used it and I have to say it was extremely fiddly. However, after a few hours work I had 137 small Red Campion plants!

Even the cuttings from my Aunt's garden seemed to have survived and were starting to show some signs of new growth. As January drew to a close we got a little reminder that winter wasn't quite done with us yet but I'll leave that story for another day.