Waiting for snow

You remember I said there was a tiny hint of spring in the air? Well, not any more. There’s a raw east wind and snow is forecast. The Met Office website showed heavy snow showers starting at 4pm and carrying on overnight until early tomorrow morning but I have only spotted a few flakes floating down so far. The sky is heavy with it, though, and I would so love it to dump a whole load on this little patch of land. The children are giddy with the thought of a whole week off school (in as much as teenagers are ever ‘giddy’; that’s more my exaggerated interpretation) – waking up to a fresh blanket of snow in the morning would be the icing on the cake, the snow on the clifftops, the best start to a week off in February.

Drifts of snowdrops are appearing throughout the garden although they are not in bloom yet. The clumps spread every year and I’m impressed by how easygoing these gorgeous flowers are. I’m forever accidentally digging up a load of their mini bulbs in the summer or autumn, so I shove them back in again and it seems to do them no harm whatsoever. I picked a few little stems with tight buds earlier this morning to bring indoors and within 30 minutes in the warm kitchen they had opened their petals to reveal the beautiful markings. These are common-or-garden Galanthus nivalis and they have a deliciously delicate scent. I also snipped the first Muscari which was blooming all alone in a sheltered spot by the back garden wall. These little bulbs also love the conditions in our garden and have spread everywhere, between paving slabs and cracks in walls, in every nook and cranny. There will be lovely patches of blue dotted all over the place in a month or so.

Although I’m excited at the prospect of snow, I am more excited at the prospect of getting back out into the garden, to get going with the sowing and planting. In the meantime, I’m flicking through my gardening books and catalogues and dreaming of colourful borders full of flowers. We have plans to renovate the greenhouse this year. It’s on its last legs; there’s a hole in the roof and the door jams. We’re opening our garden again in June for the charity garden safari that happens in our village every two years, so that will give us a boot up the backside to get things done!

I have no specific plans for the weekend ahead other than to walk the dog then sit by the fire, drink pots of tea and read. Meals are planned, the fridge is stocked, there’s a large pile of logs and all is well in our household. I hope it is where you are, too. (I’ve just looked outside and there’s no snow. Yet.)

Have a good weekend x