Well, you remember that 'chilly veg' I was moaning about last time? They are now officially sub-arctic veg. I have just been down to the greenhouse to cover them for the night. Not that they have actually been properly uncovered this last couple of days. I mean 'cover' as in putting a tablecloth & a sheet over the two lengths of bubblewrap & enormous piece of polythene that is currently covering them in the daytime. Oh, & I should add that the chillies & peppers are also under bottle cloches. Three tiny basil plants succumbed to the cold in the night, despite being wrapped like 'Pass the parcel'. Others look to be considering it. Boo to such cold April nights!
Is it Spring? I try not to make banal utterances about the weather, as we all know it can snow in April. I can remember building a snowman with my friend on Good Friday when I was a child. I've also stood on a Suffolk beach on May Day in freezing sleet (in my new sandals, naturally!) watching a man & his girlfriend fall over at the water's edge & fail to get up in time for the next icy wave. I was hugging my chips for warmth!
Yesterday we had a snow shower. Today has been the turn of sleet - 5 big showers of it, building up in piles along the garden wall, making the grass crunchy, barely melting before the next lot. So there are good signs of mid-Spring in the garden, but all have taken a bit of a battering today:
The hydrangea petiolaris is covered in buds, but the layer of hailstones has hardly thawed today.
Snowy....or rather haily bluebells and........
......our lovely clematis was looking distinctly soggy. It's usually such a herald of springtime. I hadn't realised how far it has escaped up the greengage tree.......no matter, it will help to cover up the dead bits.
The dark strip behind the wildlife pond has been like this most of the afternoon. No frogs popping up to sun themselves......though I have a horrible feeling this may have more to do with our naughty heron. More about him next time. I love herons - one of my favourite birds, actually, but this one's a bit of a crim.
Such dark photos, but all I could manage as we were underneath a bank of black cloud at the time. Albert Whiskers got caught in the first hailstorm. He wasn't impressed. Dried himself off on the sofa throw, watched some TV, lorded it up on the bedroom window for a while then started the Tummy Time Pester. As the Bigger Hairier Half of the Relationship is busy slapping eggshell onto dado rails, I caved in & applied a pouch of Chicken & Kidney Stink to bowl...........where most of it was left. With Albert Whiskers, anticipation of what he MIGHT get, is always much more exciting than what he actually gets. Tiring task eating 3 mouthfuls of meat......he's had to drag himself upstairs to recouperate on the bed. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.
PLEASE can there be some warmer weather soon?
C x
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