First snowdrops of the year

The other day the weather turned colder again after weeks of temperatures above zero, turning rain and heavy grey skies into white clouds, sunshine and blue sky. It's cold, but the sun is bright: the cats relly enjoyed sunbathing on the porch around noon. But, yes, still cold. There was frost here and there on the ground still in the afternoon, and not just in the northside shadows. And today was the day I got the urge to check the snowdrops. Was meaning to do it yesterday as I felt they'd probably budded, but never got around to it before dark. With the sun setting around 5 PM, there aren't yet many hours of sunlight when you oversleep... But today I remembered to have a look and I was right: the first snowdrops are beginning to bloom.

As I'm done it for several  years, of cause I had to keep up with the snowdrop blog tradition even if I'm still not back blogging really. The post from previous years can be found here.

Enjoy!

First snowdrop buds

I'm still not back blogging for various reasons (most lately because I got ill for a week), but I can't give up on my blog traditions, such as noting when the snowdrops pop up in the garden every winter/spring. If you want to compare with previous years, you can find all snowdrop posts here.

I spent much of january bemoaning the lack of a white winter, mostly because otherwise the winters here are wet, chilly, foggy and very dark. Miserable to put it plainly. But then we got a little snow and these last couple of weeks it's even stayed instead of melting away as fast as it's come.

The other day, after recovering from a week in bed, I started thinking about the snowdrops that surely must have started to pierce through the soil under snow at that point. And so last night, it started to really thaw again. One of the first things I did this windy morning was therefore to check out the snowdrops and sure enough, they've started to bud!

February blooms

It seems like the weather heard the news of SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) declaring spring in Skåne. Today it was warmer and we got much more sun -- and that made the first crocus bloom. They're still not in full bloom, but they are opening their flowers now. As always, it's the purple crocus that bloomed first.

More snowdrops, of cause. Many of them are in full bloom now.

And some more winter aconites.

As I've been so bad a posting cat pics, I'll finish by adding a couple of my two assistants today. Julle loved the spring weather, as you can see.

...and Ubbi got stuck up a big ash tree. He got down on his own eventually, but it took some time,  a lot of running back and forth on the branches and some coaxing from my side before he darned. Did this teach him not to go up trees that are too tall (or, more importantly, too straight as it makes it harder to climb down a vertical tree trunk compared to a tree growing at an angle or with low branches)? Probably not as it's not the first time he does something like this. He might learn not to go up that particular tree, but he will climb others like it.

They say it's spring

According to the meteorologists, we officially have spring here in Skåne now. Though, as the meteorological definition of spring is seven days and nights with an average temperature above zero, it doesn't really say much about the weather. It's still very grey and rainy (fog's gone, though) and feel just like a mild, typically scanian winter. But I guess it's a good sign that "real" spring is coming. There can still be backlashes, but hopefully it'll soon getter warmer so it begins to feel more like spring.

So far, it's mainly the snowdrops telling me it's more spring than winter now.

 Most of our snowdrops are spread out in the lawn and flowerbeds (by the remains of the horse chestnut tree), but behind the barn, there's one spot with a bigger host of snowdrops. The pic above is from that group of flowers, as are the two below.

 The last photo there is from the flowerbed by the road where the snowdrops are more scattered.

As shown here, the crocus has begun to bud too. The purple ones haven't gotten much further than in those photos, but they are now accompanied by yellow crocus buds and a couple of white ones too too.

 The hepatica or liverleaf has begun to bud already too, but sadly it looks like someone's been eating on the flowers or something... Let's hope the later flowers will be undamaged because these buds look so sad.

First snowdrops

 
It's that time of year again, it's time to report that the first snowdrops are budding. Rather early this year, if my previous posts are anything to go by: 2013 (6/3), 2012 (24/2), 2011 (15-16/3), 2010 (20/3) and 2009 (28/2). You do know that snowdrops have their own label on this blog, don't you? Just like the New year's eve photos it's become a sort of blogging tradition for me.

The snowdrops behind the barn hasn't got as far, as they've spent more time under the snow and in the shadow of trees.

Of cause we've got winter aconites as well, now that the snow is melting away fast. It's not like I don't like seeing them pop up in the flower beds too, but it's just that they are more winter flowers while snowdrops -- while still open blooming surrounded by snow -- tells me that spring is coming soon. Not yet, but soon.

First crocus flowers

Many plants had begun to pop up a leave or bud before the cold and snow came, but then everything ceased. Now with the sun and relative warmth during the days, the flowers are beginning to grow again. The daffodils are still just a thumb tall and just a few flowers are beginning to bud, such as the crocus (they started to open their buds today) and scilla.

We only have purple crocus blooming at the moment. Partially because most of the other colours of crocus are in places that are still covered in snow and ice. Even the ones that have started to bud and bloom haven't grown to their full length yet. They're just very eager to bloom -- seems like they want spring just as much we do.

The snowdrops have survived being buried. Especially the ones down by the old henhouse are fully in bloom now. The other ones that began to pop up before the cold (see first pic) had it slightly tougher with less leaves to hid under, mini floods, winds and ice.