Mild January weather

The Christmas period was indeed wet and windy, with short and sharp bouts of bad weather interspersed with bright and sunny days.  There has been a lot of flooding (again) on lower ground, but we have been little affected other than being able to collect the usual large volume of firewood blown out of the three ash trees.  The winds have eased from the first week in January, and the rain has become less frequent.  There have been a very few frosty nights, with icy roads one morning last week, but no serious cold; daytime temperatures are mostly in single figures but not dipping below, and on bright days there is a trace of warmth in the sun.  No forecast of ice and snow yet.

Given the relatively mild weather I had thought that there might be snowdrops out in early January, but they’re only starting now, and it’s G. elwesii that have come out first.  (I may have disturbed the G. atkinsii at some point and slowed them down; they certainly need moving from the bottom of the garden where they can’t be seen from the house.)  The winter aconites are beginning to show, as are some Cyclamen coum.  Other interest is from the usual winter shrubs, with some of the hellebores coming into bud and a few one-off flowers elsewhere (bergenia, some tatty choisiya buds).

Garden activity has been limited to some ground-clearing in the veg patch and pruning the big apple tree; this year I’ve managed to take off the branches that were reaching for the sky, so that everything is now in reach of the top of the stepladder.  You’re supposed to be able to throw your hat through the middle of a pruned apple tree, and there’s plenty of room now to do that (supposing you wanted to); all the unwanted water shoots have been dealt with, and some thinning has opened up more space for air to circulate through the tree.

In the greenhouse, everything is being kept at a comfortable temperature, and most of the autumn-sown seeds are responding satisfactorily – sweet peas coming on nicely, ammi germinating and initial signs of life from the larkspur.  The orlaya is being a bit reluctant (only one seedling); I may need to have another go with that.

The birdlife has spring on its mind.  The usual birds are flocking to the patio for feeding, clearly enjoying the chance of a quick meal in chilly weather, but the robins have started singing about territory, and there are signs of them pairing up (two of them occasionally bickering but half hanging out together), and I heard a thrush singing somewhere nearby today.  A wren has been about a lot too.  And we were delighted to see our lame pigeon back in the garden this week – still hobbling a bit, but clearly getting around rather more comfortably than in the autumn (so the sparrowhawk hasn’t got him, not yet anyway ….).