Some Welcome Signs of Spring

I am NOT a winter person. It might be different if I lived somewhere further north where winter meant snow, ice and a true shutting down of seasons. But in the South-East of England, winter is no more than grey, wet, muddy weather. It's not very fun.

Today, whilst tromping down the garden to see to the hens, I realised that though it's still January there are some signs of stirring plant life. A new leaf here, a change on a tree bud there and even a few flowers. To celebrate the possibility that spring is on the horizon I filmed a little video. You can watch it below or skip further down for a few pictures for 'The Hope of Spring'.

There are signs of life in the garden. Things are yet to 'thrive' but they're certainly taking opportunity of random mild days to start growing. I snapped a few photos in the dull, grey light of the day.

The first pictures are two euphorbia. These are great plants throughout the year, but they flower fairly early on and so the growing tips appear even earlier.

I love the blood-red stems on this variety

Beneath the storm-damaged trellising, this euphorbia is preparing to flower.

I had completely forgotten I put snowdrops in. These have sentimental value as they came from the garden of a friend who died last year.

The camera did NOT want to focus, but the tips of these apple buds have changed from hard, brown to grey and fluffy - signs of life!

My narcissi (not yellow) are beginning to come up!

So you can see several things are springing into life. It certainly gives me a bounce in my step. Of course, I KNOW that spring must follow winter and that it's not too far away, but seeing nature react like this fuels my excitement even more.

Thanks for reading,

Geoff