Over the weekend and yesterday it was 16c

And these are all signs of spring.  Then winter arrived today!

This is not snow but hail and no doubt will soon be gone but a timely reminder that it is only early February!

At last we have reached February without too much winter.  -6c is the worst so far.  Suddenly the aconites have appeared, along with a lonely crocus

After a long cold period it has now warmed up and, of course, it is raining!  They are predicting it will be 11c on Friday and 16c on Monday.  Then it will be 1c on the following Thursday.   With snow.

One of the cats, Soda, decided to break his day (usually spent on our bed) to climb the willow tree opposite to the conservatory.

The snowdrops are all coming up and I even saw the beginning of a crocus.  Signs of life, so lovely

Every year, in January, the mimosa arrives to the market in Autun.  A stall full of yellow sunshine.  It is very popular.  I queued for 20 minutes yesterday to buy a bunch.  But it is worth it.  For 10 euros I bought the bunch shown below.  It will only last a couple of days but who cares!  It smells wonderful and reminds us all that spring will arrive one day.  When I look out the window at our frozen garden it is a welcome reminder.

It was freezing last night and it is still freezing but it is January.  It was only -4c last night and is currently -1c.  Not that cold, in the scheme of things, for the east of France,  let’s hope it continues but we still have February, our coldest month, to go.

as promised here is another photo of the mahonia.  A welcome sight on a cold winter’s day.  Also a hellebore braving the cold!  The snowdrops are coming up but need some warmer weather.

First a very happy New Year to all.  Here it has started cold, -5c last night.  However, it is meant to warm up this week which means rain!

Not much to post in early January but a table display, the first snowdrop and the mahonia beginning to flower.  I thought I would take it now as the frost does tend to destroy the flowers.  However, if they do survive I will ensure I take a photo.

The beautiful garden from mid-June began to change until it grew no more.  The heat and the drought saw to that.

In the potager it was a total disaster.  Not only did nothing grow anymore we were inundated with an infestation of small black beetles that loved brassicas.  The broccoli, sprouts, kale turned black with them overnight and after they were finished nothing remained.  It needed rain to get rid of them and that didn’t exist anymore.

The sweetcorn and beans did moderately well as I used the last of the water on them and the tomatoes.

In the rest of the garden all the autumn plants, asters, helianthus, grasses hardly got above half their size and some not even that.

Except for the day lilies which flowered their little socks off, god bless.

The knipofias did fairly well except for Prince Igor.  It grew well but no flowers!

In November it started to rain heavily and hasn’t really stopped.  Within a week all the fields around us began to green-up, within two weeks it was impossible to see that they had been brown dried up pastures.  The cows were certainly happy.

One day in early November I counted 15 parasol mushrooms.  They were everywhere.I always begin to panic by October that my yellow autumn crocuses won’t appear but no worries they arrived toward the end of the month.  .As we didn’t get a frost until November the dahlias continued on as did the crocuses.

So what will next year bring?  Hopefully some more rain during the summer months.  But certainly lots of pleasure as each plant starts to grow and then flowers.

 

It all started so well.  By mid-June the garden looked beautiful and then it all went horribly wrong.  Well, weeks of temperatures between 30-40 c with no rain won’t help your plants!

January was mild.  February was snow.  By March we had snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and primroses/primulas.

Followed by hellebores.

Probably one of my favourite plants.  I love painting them too.

These were followed by azaleas, oriental poppies, peonies, irises and lupins

Then there were the roses and the cats, always the cats.

So there I was with a beautiful garden full of flowers and then the first official heatwave arrived.  In France it is called a canicule.  10 days of temperatures over
40 c.  I had my open garden at the end of June.  The grass had started to brown and the temperature was 36c in the shade.  Some brave souls actually went round the garden!

 

The snow has lasted until today when, I hope, the last will disappear.

This last week was a lot milder and next week is meant to be freezing at night but sunny and around 10c during the day.

No sign of our Dutch friends so I hope they will be in touch this coming week…  lots of bushes have been bent out of shape by the weight of the snow, some branches are off trees and it all needs cutting back.

 

A hammelis working its magic in the depths of winter plus some snowdrops that  were there all the time under the snow and are now appearing everywhere..

 

 

 

Why is it that January feels like it will never end!  Although February can be a lot colder (at least in this part of the world) it does feel it will end.  Having said that we have gained, during January, over an hour more light and we know in February that will go a lot faster.

We have had this January more snow than other years and in the last couple of days more than our first winter here in 2005.

Since these were taken yesterday we’ve had about another 10 centimeters.  The snowplough has not been so we are currently snowed in!

It is now meant to rain so hopefully next week will just be cold but sunny.   So hopefully our young Dutch couple who come every year to cut the entire garden back will be able to come!