Spring springing????????????

[Tony F Dordogne]

Heard a woodpecker yesterday and today we had a Red Admiral, a bumbling bee and what looked like a miner bee in the garden within 15 mins of each other - fringers crossed, it may be spring springing. 

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Hope so, this has been the worst winter in my life.

[mint]

Yes, but the BEST spring, Richard, chin up!

Tony, for sure:  short sleeved thermal vest instead of long-sleeved, no more long johns, pair of jeans, walking dog BEFORE instead of AFTER breakfast (cos it'll be too warm), paraffin heater in the hall only on after dark, still light now and Mme la Voisine has been spotted WITHOUT her anorak!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, spring's on its wa....aaayyyyy!

[Dog]

Shorts and T shirts here today and 4 hours kite flying. Owls hooting in the woods all day, lizards out and about, daffodils about to open. Wood peckers have been about for the last few months.

Spiders are busy as flying web caught all over kites.

Meteo shows a backslip now though and some minus temperatures at night.

[Gardian]

Was furtling around my potager this afternoon, and the geckos were running! Great things, they are. They look at me as though I shouldn't be there.

Everything budding like hell.   

[NormanH]

But you are all 6 weeks late!

My first outside lunch on a restaurant terrace , wearing just a cardigan over a short sleeved shirt ( apart from trousers etc !!= ) was as often in  January..

[Gardian]

Yeh, yeh - it's fine for city slickers like you to talk about lunching al fresco in January. We too, were in Montpellier a month ago & were able to eat outside comfortably.

Were there again yesterday & it was decidedly parky - opted for inside like everybody else.

No, we're talking about the real countryside here Norman, unlike a townie like you. 

[Gardengirl]

It's been warm and sunny the past few days, around 16 degrees, had the awning out, sat out for lunch several days. Yesterday we had a short walk in the valley of the Eure, starting by the spring that supplied water via the Pont du Gard aqueduct to Nimes. It was so lovely, birds chirping away, ducks quacking, people just soaking it all up while looking at remains of the aqueduct along their path. Bliss! [:D]

My son in UK sent an email yesterday to say March has brought spring-like weather there too, after such a wet, snowy, bitter February. We reurn there in a few days for a couple of weeks; hope it lasts!

[Cendrillon]

Yes, GG

[:)]We have had a couple of sunny days and the snowdrops and crocus flowers are in bloom here and the daffodils in bud. Mind you we are in the southern half of the U.K. it's still wintry up north.

[Hoddy]

We've been very lucky here too. Very little snow and no disruption from it and now, as Cendrillon says, the snowdrops have been out for ages, the crocuses are in bloom and the daffs in bud. Wonderful how it lifts the spirits.

Hoddy

[Swissie]

In Leics Hoddy? I try not to think about the beautiful garden I left back in East Leics- it was so amazing at this time of year. It is now a Kindergarten - and the new owner is defo. not a gardener - but the bulbs will be doing their thing all the same. Here snow is just going - but it is amazing how much more quickly things change in the mountains - snow drops are out and the winter hellebores brought over, which I thought had died - are now starting to bloom- great. Siskins are here in big numbers and are chatting and chirrping away like crazy - such lovely little birds. The minute the snow goes from our 2 fields at back and side of house - millions of wild crocuses will appear in all shades of white and purple. Anytime now.

Soon it will be bluebell woods in the Outwoods for you - I just loved it there and used to stop on way back from my school in Loughborough, going the scenic route through Swithland back to Scraptoft. Fabulous.

[Bugsy]

[IMG]http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p211/Bugbear2/P1000186.jpg[/IMG]

.

[Swissie]

Hmmm not quite - guess what ?

It's snowing again.

[krusty]

No snow here , thank you god .....but minus 7..........weather man says it will warm up soon.

Others have had it bad as well. Some good photos.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1256974/Shock-British-holidaymakers-Majorca-island-hit-freak-snowstorm.html

[Swissie]

Lovely sunny day today - kites are back and hovering over house, and snow melting fast.

[Gardengirl]

Lovely pics in your link krusty; it was obviously very widespread. We had pics sent by neighbours in our little town - quite dramatic! We'd been eating most lunches outside up to the Thursday, and we only left on Friday for 10 days and it all happened! Where we are in SE England we didn't have any at all. I wish I'd seen it in person, especially the surrounding countryside, although to be honest the 30cm we had in UK in December, and which stayed put, was enough for me for a while. 

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Swissie...likewise for us, we left a small village just east of Loughborough. Best time of year with all the blue bells coming up. We got invited back once when passing through, and the new owners had dug them all up! Breaks your heart. I hope the outwoods still have theirs.

Black Kites and Scops owls are back here too. The Woods around here are just starting to stir, but soon it will be too hot and the ground will go from permafrost to dried out concrete.

[Gardengirl]

I sometimes wish I could get rid of the bluebells in my garden in SE England. I love them in the woods behind the house, but those in the garden look such a mess for so long after flowering. Even though most of it is what I call a wildlife garden, they can make it lok so untidy. I love watching red kites here - it's rare to look up and not see at least one, and to hear them crying out. Beautiful birds.

[Poppy]

Heard a cuckoo this afternoon [:D]

[mint]

Sorry to sound like upmanship but we have heard a cuckoo for at least a week now...........

[Poppy]

Definitely first time today, this time last week we had a robin [:(]

[mint]

But robins are lovely too.................[:D]

[Poppy]

Yes he is quite a dear old friend now.  We have had just the one all winter and he was here last year, well I think it's the same one. Sad face was because Winter seems to have been sooo long. Our weather changed Tuesday this week, one day it was 4 degrees the next 24.

[mint]

4 to 24?  Some change, Poppy.

I, too, thought we'd gone into spring but, although today started in a promising way, by this afternoon it was pi****g down, sky all dark and, of course, all the fires had to be lit this evening.  You never do know here in 17.

Could be glorious but equally perishing cold and sometimes on the same day.....quite extraordinary.

[Gardengirl]

Yesterday was glorious! It was around 18 for most of the afternoon and there was spring in the air!

It's been fun hearing about the recent snow, which we missed - we were eating outside for a few days, went away on Friday and it snowed heavily on Sunday! Talking about exactly the same spot in the old town we've been told there were depths between 20 and 50cm. What a shame we missed it!

I've been watching magpies flying around with twigs in their beaks this afternoon; I just lazily sat with the papers, soaking it all up. ;o)