Spring is here!

[Gruditch]

Took this in a clients garden today these are usually one of the earliest Daffies that I see, but never this early. I don't think the current mild weather alone has triggered them to flower, as its been equally mild this time of year, for the last two years. My hunch is this years cold wet June/July, and now this mild period has fooled them, remember the second brood DOB

Gruditch

[Matsukaze]

Wallflower in flower in my garden, though I usually get one or two flowering in the autumn.

[Martin]

Cold, windy and lashing it down here...there's no way I'm going out looking for flowers!

Martin.

[Padfield]

No daffodils in my front garden:



Guy

[Bryan H]

That's beautiful, Guy!

And it's put me in the Christmas mood! I feel a favourite carol coming on...

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum
wie treu sind deine Blatter!
Du grunst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum
in Gurnigelbad this Christmas night!



Bryan

[Padfield]

Round here they actually sing this instead, to the same tune:

Mon beau sapin, roi des forêts
Que j'aime ta verdure !
Quand par l'hiver, bois et guérets
Sont dépouillés de leurs attraits
Mon beau sapin, roi des forêts
Tu gardes ta parure.

(Note: terminal 'e's are syllabic in poetry, so it scans just like the German)

Guy

[Paul]

Guy.....

What were you doing in the middle of that bush???????

[Martin]

My favourite ...

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

Martin.

[Padfield]

It looks as though Gruditch's daffodils are feeling springlike all on their own, while the rest of us are getting tingly for Christmas!! I'm certainly looking forward to getting back to Suffolk and blasting out the same bits of the Creation that we've sung every year in my church choir since I was a tiny treble decades ago. It will be so much better if someone can lay on some snow too... I hope the daffodils are not a sign of what is to come.

Guy

PS - That bush, Paul, is a rather fine sallow tree just by my house. Sallow is a fantastic butterfly bush in the spring and this one is usually covered in small tortoiseshells, large tortoiseshells, commas, red admirals and thousands of bees.

[Bryan H]

My favourite ...

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

Martin.

That's my favourite too, Martin, along with "In the Deep Mid-Winter"

Sorry, Gruditch!

Guy has a tendency to take things off topic!



Bryan

[Gruditch]

I tried to do a serious post about freak weather conditions, and posible climate change, and Guy turns it into a bl@@dy carrol singing session.

By the way, My favourite is "Good King whats his name"

Gruditch

[Padfield]

Well, to get back on topic, then (not that it was me who ever got us off topic, Bryan ): in general, I think, the signs are that this winter is going to be rather different from last winter (and we usually get the same kind of weather here as in England, minus a few degrees). Red admirals were flying locally (1200m) until the end of November last year, and this wall was making the best of a bad job on 15th December at about 600m:

.

This year I haven't seen anything at all since 4th November and the forecast for the next week is such that there is absolutely no point in looking. I've read the English forecast and it looks as if the same applies to you!

Guy

[Martin]

Wind & rain,
Rain & wind!