Here Comes the Sun...

Weather: very windy overnight followed by a slight frost 2C at 9.00 am and a dusting of white on the north facing roofs.



At last a clear morning and I decided to get out at first light (well about ten to eight!) and go for a walk. That is the great plus of working for myself from home - no commuting. I chose one of my regular walks which was very muddy after all this rain but the mist on the horizon and the standing water in the fields was spectacular. In the stillness after last night's wind the roar of the traffic in the distance was pretty loud and a reminder of how good it is not to be in it!



The snowdrops are rushing away now - compared with the photo I took earlier in the year (see January 4th post) Any day now they'll be flowering.


Next decision: take advantage of not having a major deadline to hit today for my work and get out and do some pruning and perhaps move a couple of shrubs...



....and I did. I pruned the vine. It's an outdoor variety - I'm not sure which but most years we get lots of bunches of small, sweet, black grapes. Not so last year it as suffered badly in the summer's wet weather and the leaves yellowed and fell early. It may have suffered further as there seems a lot of dead wood but it always seems very dormant at this time of year. I have pruned it back to one potential bud at each node on the main stems....here's hoping..



Also I moved my Sweet Box (Sarcococca). I often grow plants to remind me of people - or in their memory. And this is for Aunty Dorothy - a great aunt in fact - who died in her mid nineties a couple of years ago. The last time I had lunch with her we walked to the pub and on the way back she pointed out this shrub growing in someone's garden , which was in flower in February, and said she'd like one when she moved to her new home in Yorkshire. She did move but died a few months later and I bought this plant for her.


I didn't position it well and it got overcome by the plants around it. So now it goes in the border where the Choisya was - and I can see it from my office window. I hope it does her proud - Aunty was one of the few people you could describe as 'vivacious' even into her nineties. A lovely lady sadly missed.