Spring is almost here

Now the snow has gone, it gave us a chance to take a few photos of what has been happening under the snow. It never ceases to amaze us how nature still carries on regardless of what the weather throws at it.

These are just a few photos taken around the village to show that Spring is well and truly on its way.

Spring is on its way

I wanted to share with you all, the fact that my broad bean seedlings have survived all of the snow. My Dad, aged 93 and still very fit and well, told me that his father used to plant his broad bean seeds before Christmas, so the frost killed any black fly eggs that appeared on the young seedlings. So as an obedient daughter, I did as my Dad said. One very chilly autumn/winter day I was on the vegetable patch dutifully planting my seeds in very neat rows. A few weeks later, I was passing the vegetable plot, and to my horror, there appeared to be several very neat furrows just where the broad beans seeds should have been. I guessed that a little mouse had been very busy stealing my carefully sown seeds. Another couple of weeks past and Alan came in from the garden, saying my broad beans were doing well, I thought he was joking, but when I went and looked, there, in my neat rows, were the lovely young shoots of my broad beans. Shortly after that the weather forecasters were talking about heavy snow on the way, I was concerned for my young seedlings. While I was out at work one day, Alan kindly found a heavy dark coloured duvet cover and covered the seedlings. I thought they would never survive, not only the weight of the duvet and the snow but also the lack of light through the dark coloured fabric. By this point there was no going back, the seedlings had two chances, survive or perish. So we left them covered for about three weeks. When we finally managed to uncover them, we were asounded to see the young seedlings had survived. As you can see from the photos they are not the strongest looking seedlings but at least they are still with us. Now all we have to do is keep an eye on the weather and keep the duvet cover handy.