What a difference a week makes ..

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These first pictures were taken at the end of February,  the early spring flowers looking lovely on a bitterly cold but sunny winter’s day.   The views of the garden were taken on 24th February after two days of hard work with a digger,  taking the top surface off the muddy overgrown gravel drive.    Again a bitterly cold day but with glorious sunshine, and a day I spent sowing seeds which are now tucked up safe and warm in the heated propagator.       Another hard day’s work on yet another sunny day saw many tons of gravel delivered and spread out on the drive and what a good job we got all the work done because today – 2 March – what a different story ..

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The snow doesn’t look that deep until you find the spots where it has drifted up to a foot deep.     The snow is very powdery so hopefully won’t be damaging the flowers underneath.    Charlie, the dog, was happy to venture out to see what was going on but is now tucked up nice and warm inside.      The snow has also revealed lots of footprints – not only ours and the dogs but rabbits!    We thought we had blocked off all the places they were getting in but the evidence is there in the snow so fences will have to be checked again when it gets a bit warmer.

A treat today is watching two pairs of bullfinches in the garden, not at the bird feeders though,  unfortunately they seem to prefer pecking buds off Prunus trees and shrubs.  Can’t begrudge them any food they are finding but I hope they leave some buds!  Of course the bird feeders are being kept topped up and  are attracting long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, nuthatches, robins and goldfinches with robins, dunnocks, wrens, magpies, blackbirds and pigeons also in attendance.