Golden Daffodils

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

- William Wordsworth, Daffodils

It's no secret that the most favoured of my spring flowers is the daffodil.  I'll take any form of daffodil be it yellow, orange, white, pink or a blend of the above!  Presently though I only have wee clumps of dwarf varieties.  These ones are all in containers, and were protected from Mrs Nutkin our resident squirrel using chicken wire.

Those in the open ground however haven't been as lucky.  Thus far I have one or two dotted around, and one small clump, all in the front garden... The verges outside our garden seems colourful though with crocuses and daffs, all of which have been 'replanted' by Mrs Nutkin.

The weather has been kind to us during the day this last week or so (I can't say the same for the nights).  This has encouraged buds to swell and leaves to emerge.

These are the leaves of our summer-fruiting rasperry.  I'm thinking of re-homing this one as it has spent the last couple of years in a very large pot on the patio.

This little beauty is a form of Helleborus.  I have some beautiful green/white varieties that I was given, but this one I bought last summer as it had gone past it's best and so it was going cheap.  It was a shot in the dark, but one that has paid off, don't you think?

It's been a while since these ladies featured in the blog.  Hedwig (white) Fawkes (black & gold) and little old lady Lola.  We thought Lola might be headed for the great nest-box in the sky but  after a day or two in a box in an out-house kept quiet, she bounced back.  She still sneezes a little, but she's as bright as a button again bossing the larger hens about.  We've given up expecting her to lay - it's been  around 6 months or more.  Hedwig  regularly lays the most fantastic double-yokers.  Last week Bumblebee was so convinced that an especially large egg contained 3 yokes that he put his name on it to ensure no-one else would eat it.  His choice of usage was scrambled.  Only 2 yokes.  Only?  That's still pretty cool - you don't get that from your average box on the shelf at the supermarket!

So with it still being relatively quiet in the garden, The Man That Can and I took Bumblebee out to one of the city's "green spaces". 

Funny how we're always drawn to water.  Of course it's only the very early moments in spring in the park too, so it's not very "green" at present.  But when the sun shines, it's important to make the most of it.

When do you class the first day of spring?  For some it is March 1st (climatologically speaking).  For others it is when the clocks go forward.  Astronomically it is March 20th this year.  Since that is tomorrow and today has been such a lovely mild day, I'll go for that one!

Bring it on!