Monday

We have had a few interludes of dry today but we seem to be back to cold and wet even if the wind has gone down. There is more bloom every day. The rose I was given in the autumn is making a promising start

Sunday

We’ve had a beautiful sunny day. The long tailed tits have been particularly busy at the fat balls. The hedgehog is back at night so I am putting food out for it each evening. The yellow daffodils appear to be being shredded although it may well be the wind.

I am pleased to have an increasing number of snakehead fritillaries

Friday

We had some sunshine today but the wind is bitterly cold. Ben stayed out in the Magic Garden for a short time while I pruned back the two climbing roses and tied them into the fences. I planted out anemone blanda in the gap in front of the red dogwood.

Saturday

Its been grey & cold here today with a bitter east wind off the sea. I probably chose a bad day to clear / clean out the pond. I cleared bucket fulls of accumulated silt and leaves from it and re filled with fresh water. I need to get a new solar fountain now although sunshine seems unlikely and to get some anti-mud water clearing stuff in.

I treated myself to some snakehead fritillaria today and planted out a couple of foxgloves and another dogwood.

Ben meantime has continued loving the catnip plants I put in the back winter border while he ignores the birds & they him.

Tuesday

We had an unusually bright day today and it has felt like spring with leaves beginning to unfurl. The daffodils are beginning to make a show back and front. I’ve put a little bit of a barrier over Ben’s favourite nip plant but I think I may need to protect it more from his love.

Sunday

The ground is horrendously soggy at the moment although at least everything is greening up as spring arrives. Ben is loving his catnip plants but I think I will have to protect the ones I planted this year. A little bit of sun was welcome today but it is very chilly. Inside I at lat got round to sowing sweetpeas, broad beans and Dahlia Bishop's Children

Tuesday

For Ben today was all about the catnip. I suspect my latest wee plants are going to be hatched out of existence so its as well that the others are all sprouting away. It isn’t just the catnip that looks a bit battered - quite a few blooms look a bit past their best.

Sunday

Today has been a lovely day with intermittent sunshine and very mild. I spent a chunk of the afternoon out in the Magic Garden with Ben in attendance. He was very enthusiastic about the wee catnip plants I interspaced with the cyclamen at the back of the garden and enjoyed a nap on the hedgehog house.

I also planted out Cynara cardunculus bare root plants and admired the amount of herbaceous perennials now pushing back up through - even the monkshood is showing signs of life. More daffodils are out and the crocus collections is lovely.

Saturday

It is very mild today and it managed to stay dry until late afternoon before starting to rain hard again. I took the opportunity to move the broken arch and obelisk before planting out the achillea modules that arrived this week and more of the Eryngium Silver Salentino. Ben came out too and supervised the tidying up phase before deciding to investigate the arbour bench’s potential for a snooze.

The first pulmonaria are out - think here are called raspberry ripple

Thursday

Its continued to be wet much of the time but today although damp it is very mild. The signs of spring are getting more obvious and the wee daffodils are coming out. Ben is rather pleased that the catnip is also re-sprouting.

Wet Sunday

It was incredibly wet again this morning although we had a brief respite late this afternoon. It didn’t seem to put the birds off the feeders but Ben rapidly decided the outdoor world could wait for another day.

Another Saturday

Its been an incredibly wet week and the Magic Garden is very soggy. Ben came out to inspect the bird water but was not impressed by the snow drops I was planting out having received them in the green or the first of my daffodils coming out. It does look very bedraggled. The hellebores are still doing well while the primroses are still looking battered. I did some general clearing of wet soggy material. I was rather worried by finding what looks like coral spot on the blackberry. I cut out the dead material and have put it in the refuse, sterilising the saw and secateurs.

Saturday

The 10 darkest weeks of the year are gone now as we pass Imbolc. We still have a fair breeze and a dampness to the air but the sun has been out and so has Ben, if only briefly. The hellebores are beginning to look their best and the snowdrops are becoming proper wee clumps. When I went to look I found there were small flushes of deep blue, the wee irises are beginning to put on a show. I continue to be really pleased with this year’s new winter border - the two Christmas boxes are blooming constantly and although the cyclamen have looked rather roughed up by the weather & pigeons I think they will establish.

Sunny Tuesday Afternoon

It has been wet , windy or cold or all three for what feels like weeks on end. The Magic Garden has been relatively unscathed by wind this year beyond all the wind spinners discovering a new horizontal placement. The severe cold has seen off foliage from last year but already fresh green is showing throughout the garden. The daffodils are well on route if not in bud just yet, I have snowdrops out and my wee collection of hellebores are blooming. The rhubarb is looking promising both in the plot and the potted version. Ben ventured out for a few minutes to sit on the bench in the sun while I planted out my treat to myself of a wee white hellebore.

Cold cold week

It is beginning to warm up again and we expect more rain tomorrow after snow earlier this week and sub-zero temperatures. My ventures out into the Magic Garden have been mainly to put fresh water out for the birds and to refill their feeders. I picked some extra crunchy curly kale too - did occur to me that I could stick it straight in the freezer. This week’s excitement was a female blackcap arriving at the mealworms feeder.

Saturday

The sun came out briefly today and I got on with some of the maintenance tasks in the Magic Garden including the winter pruning before enjoying the birds at the feeders. It remains bitterly cold and damp. Ben thought birdwatching was fun too but didn’t stay out vey long