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IN FEBRUARY

The frozen ground is broken
Where snowdrops raise their heads
And nod their tiny greeting
In glades and garden beds.

The frozen stream is melted
The white brook turns to brown
And foaming through the coppice
Flows helter skelter down.

The frozen air is golden
With February sun
The winter days are over
Oh, has the Spring begun?

P A Ropes

o

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WINTER JASMINE

A pretty shrub to brighten up the garden in the bleak of midwinter is Jasminum nudiflorum, commonly known as Winter Jasmine.

You may well think it ordinary, but do you know of the interesting history it has?



More often than not these days I find myself snapping away with the camera, when I really should be gardening!

I like the blurry effect these two photos have taken on.

You could compare the yellowness of the Jasmine to a Summer's day - William Shakespeare Sonnet 18.

Happy St Valentines Day!

o

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THE DARKENING GARDEN

Where have all the colours gone?



Red of roses, green of grass
Brown of tree-trunk, gold of cowslip
Pink of poppy, blue of cornflower
Who among you saw them pass?







They have gone to make the sunset.







Broidered on the western sky
All the colours of our garden
Woven into a lovely curtain
O'er the bed where Day doth lie.



Anonymous

o

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WINTER AND SPRING, AND SUMMER!

o

Lilac buds above.

But a little while a go

All the ground was white with snow

Trees and shrubs were dry and bare

Not a sign of life was there.

Now the buds and leaves are seen

Now the fields are fresh and green

Pretty birds are on the wing

With a merry song they sing.

There's new life in everything

How I love the pleasant Spring!

o

Today, clocks in the UK move forward an hour.

o

Which means one hours less sleep, but longer days and more time in the garden. I know which I'd rather have!

o

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CROCUSES

A kind voice calls, 'come little ones', 'tis time to wake from sleeping
And out of bed without a word, the drowsy folk come creeping
And soon above the chilly earth, their tiny heads are peeping.

They bravely face the wind of March, its bite and bluster scorning
Like little soldiers, till oh joy, with scarce a word of warning
The crocuses slip off their caps, and give us gay good morning.

Anna M Platt

o

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SNOWDROPS

I'd like to think, that long ago,
There fell to earth, some flakes of snow
Which loved this cold, grey world of ours
So much, they stayed as snowdrop flowers.

Mary Vivian

o

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THE CALENDAR - PART THREE

I knew when Winter swirled
Not by the whitened world
Or silver skeins in the lanes
Or frost
That embossed
Its patterns on window-panes
But because there were transfer-sheets
By the bottles of spice and sweets
In the shops in two little streets.

by Barbara Euphan Todd

These days, for heavy snow to fall in the South, is a rare occurrence. This was the wintery scene waiting to greet us on Monday morning (02/02/09) after the night before. The snow has now thawed and it's raining.

I wonder whether we will have more snow?

o

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PEACOCK BUTTERFLY

A peacock butterfly basking in late Autumn sunshine. This butterfly usually goes into hibernation in September and spends the winter in a location where they can find shelter and darkness.

You really do need to click on the photo to enlarge, to discover how perfectly beautiful this butterfly really is.

A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam, and for a brief moment its glory and beauty belong to our world, but then it flies on again, and although we wish it could have stayed, we are so thankful to have seen it at all - author unknown.

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THE CALENDAR - PART TWO

I knew when Autumn came
Not by the crimson flame
Of leaves that lapped the eaves
Or mist
In amethyst
And opal-tinted weaves
But because there were alley-taws
Punctual as hips and haws
On the counter of Mrs Shaw's.

by Barbara Euphan Todd

Stone or clay formed the earliest marbles, but the alabaster 'alley-taws' made better shooters than the cheaper clay - these words are taken from the National Toy Hall of Fame website.

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THE CALENDAR - PART ONE

I knew when Summer breathed
Not by the flowers that wreathed
The sedge by the water's edge
Or gold
Of the wold
Or white and rose of the hedge
But because in a wooden box
In the window at Mrs Mocks
There were white-winged shuttlecocks.

By Barbara Euphan Todd

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CELANDINE - Future joy

To the Small Celandine
William Wordsworth

Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies
Let them live upon their praises
Long as there’s sun that sets
Primroses will have their glory
Long as there are violets
They will have a place in story
There’s a flower that shall be mine
‘Tis the little Celandine

'Ere a leaf is on a bush
In the time before the thrush
Has a thought about her nest
Thou wilt come with half a call
Spreading out thy glossy breast
Like a careless Prodigal
Telling tales about the sun
When we’ve little warmth, or none

I am sure in a book, I have seen this beautiful little plant classed as a weed?

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DIVIDING PLANTS

Sweet sentiment from one of my favourite children's illustrator, Mabel Lucie Attwell. Hope you likes!

Today I have been dividing perennials and have made new plants from eryngium, achillea and coreopsis, and dug up three clumps of tradescanthia, moved one of them and giving the other two away. You can really save money by doing this, as these plants can cost a fortune to buy at this size from the garden centre, and at the same time you are able to swap your plants with others.

I seem to be forever turfing out plants and moving them, every year, never being quite satisfied where I have put them.