Bluebells in the garden started to come into flower last week.
Daffodils still in flower.
Middle of April, clear blue sky, sunny, temperature hits 25C.
Last week was warm and sunny, around 20C, then Saturday back to winter, very cold.
Warmest April day in four years.
Madrid 19C.
Global warming?
First bluebells started to appear last week. Today more are in flower.
Primroses and wood anemones are still in flower. Daffodils are dying off.
Lawns mowed, a little bit of digging, hoeing.
Runner beans, variety Scarlet Emperor sowed. Probably too early, but I will take the risk.
By lunchtime through to early afternoon, it was too hot to work in the garden.
Bluebells in the garden, an Ancient Woodland indicator species, started coming out about ten days ago.
Sunny, but cool.
Grass mowed.
Bluebells started coming out about ten days ago.
A solitary primrose came out a few days ago.
Peas and broad peas started popping up about ten days ago.
The first cowslip out today.
Later, enjoyed the fruits of my labour, sat in the sun reading Sacred Economics on Kobo Touch.
Monday a week ago, the last day of April, it was a lovely spring day. I made the most of it it and worked in my garden.
It was very much the exception not the norm for this year.
Officially we are in drought!
April 2012, the wettest April on record.
April 2012, if not the coldest, one of the coldest.
I worked much longer in the garden than I had intended. I had not been in the garden for days, I did not know when the next good day would be.
That night very heavy rain, thunder and lightning. It continued all morning. Luckily it eased off by late morning and I was able to head for Guildford for lunch and the farmers market (first Tuesday of the month).
The rest of the week, cold wet and raining. The weekend was very cold. Probably around 5 to 7 C maximum. Sunday was very cold. I popped out Sunday evening and it must have been close to freezing.
Monday I had hoped it would be dry. It was cold, then it started raining.
But it is May! It is more like winter.
Today I hoped it would be dry. But it had rained all night, the grass was soaking wet. I hate mowing wet grass, but it was getting long, had not been cut for a week.
It was warm and very humid. Slowly the clouds broke up and it turned into a lovely sunny day.
As the previous Monday, I worked in the garden much longer than intended.
Grass was mowed. Hard work when it is wet and it chews up the grass.
Bed for sweetcorn cleared, sweetcorn sown. Red in the bed by the fence, yellow and black by the front wall.
Beans sown, strip side of lawn, by lattice fence.
Runner beans var Scarlet Emperor.
French beans var Paralimni.
Cowslips are in full bloom, as are the bluebells in woodland area at the bottom of the garden. The patch of bluebells near the house, which have been out for weeks, will soon be over.
In Japan, spring is heralded by the cherry blossom trees coming into flower.
In England, it is the bluebell that heralds the arrival of spring.
Although found across northern Europe, it is in England that bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) comes into its own.
Ancient woodlands, with trees of oak, hazel and ash, once coppiced, though now mostly neglected, in the spring are a carpet of blue.
Bluebells are the second wave of woodland flowers. The first wave are much closer to the ground.
The trees then come into leaf, shading out the ground.
Nothing of interest will now be found in the woods, apart from butterflies flitting around sunny glades and woodland rides, until the autumn, when the woodland fungi can be found.
Last week, bluebells were just starting to come into flower in my garden.
April, I will expect the woodland area of my garden to be carpeted with bluebells.
Bluebells are usually blue, but occasionally they are white and purple.