MiniBeast

And, after the Beast from the East, we've had the MiniBeast: the same thing again but not so severe.  The weather started to warm up encouragingly in the post-Beast thaw, although even the more comfortable temperatures and rainfall took a week or so to get rid of all the snow.  Then last weekend the wind turned back to the east and brought more wind, low temperatures and snow; again, the actual volume of snow wasn't all that great but it formed small drifts in places, and froze to give us icy roads for a couple of days.  Conveniently for those who had to get out and about and into work, it was again the weekend that was the worst.  Three days on, the roads are clear again, although there are still significant patches of snow where drifts built up against hedges and walls, and in places out of the sun.

Still snow on the lawn

The wildlife seems to take it all pretty much in its stride, especially these past few days where the cold snap has been fairly brief.  As soon as the temperatures start to rise the birds seem to perk up, start singing again and get on with life; I haven't seen any actual signs of nesting yet, though a few birds have toyed briefly with bits of grass, as though they were aware that they would soon be wanting this stuff.  The sparrows are popping in and out of the leylandii hedge, so I would guess that they're choosing suitable nest sites in there; it's a real sparrow condominium.  I've put some wire netting loosely round the nestbox, enough to allow access by nuthatches or bluetits but not (I hope) the woodpecker.  A peek inside showed that something has been in there (there were droppings in the bottom), probably as a winter roost - but it will soon be a des res for a nesting pair.

One of the male pheasants has been about quite a lot.  He likes to stand in shelter among the shrubs, and is happy to wander about near me when I'm working in the garden.  In the snow yesterday he scraped out a spot in the lee of a euonymus so that he could stand out of the wind but warm up in the sun.

Spot the pheasant, hiding ...

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty'

The plants bounced back from the first lot of snow and will do so again this time.  The little 'Tete-a-tete' daffodils in pots started to bloom after the Beast, and they, the crocuses and the hellebores seem to have survived the latest freeze.  The big daffs are still only in bud, and they will have been knocked back by the weather; but colour is starting to come back slowly to the garden.  I managed a small posy of pulmonaria and viburnum, the only flowers suitable for cutting at the moment.  A vase of supermarket tulips is going over, but I find that tulips mostly age well; even when they are faded like old tissue paper and on the point of falling apart, they still have interesting colour and shape.

Helleborus x hybridus

Crocus tommasinianus 'Whitewell Purple'

Narcissus 'Tete-a-tete'

Pulmonaria and viburnum

Tulips - fading but still decorative

Between the freezes I managed to get a few garden jobs done.  A sunny day was spent pruning the apple tree, with the pheasant poking around below and a buzzard circling overhead (and helicopters going to and from Cheltenham races passing by).  The autumn-sown broad beans had had a high failure rate, so the empty spaces were filled with sowings of 'Imperial Longpod' and I added a double row of the same alongside; and the shallots were planted, with some fleece on top to allow them to get roots down before the birds can get at them.  The garlic is coming up nicely, including one of the elephant garlic bulbs which has finally put up a shoot (something had nibbled the top of this, so an old inverted hanging basket has been put on top to protect it).  The leeks don't seem to have done well, though; quite a few have disappeared.  Other jobs included cutting the old leaves off the epimediums to allow the flowers to show, removing spent flower stems on the sedums, Lilium henryi and the Big Yellow Thing (bupthalmum is its proper name, but BYT is easier) and some belated tidying of rose bushes.  Outstanding jobs include pruning the buddleja, which was looking a bit sad after the first lot of freezing so I thought it best to leave it for the moment; and potting up dahlias and other things in the greenhouse; the forecast is for temperatures to remain a little below normal, but I'm hoping that the greenhouse will be warm enough to get them going.