Spring Is On The Way

Over a week now and apart from Saturday it's been sunshine all the way 

It's dead nice over here at the moment and the air is starting to smell of summer as in freshly cut grass and the cheeky aroma of charcoal barbeques,love it!

Paul1976 wrote:It's dead nice over here at the moment and the air is starting to smell of summer as in freshly cut grass and the cheeky aroma of charcoal barbeques,love it!

Enjoy while it lasts Paul a change is coming 

Lilacs are out

not this kind though

http://www.lileks.com

Picture and more about Lilacs here
https://www.thespruce.com/lilac-bushes-growing-tips-2132722

All the best Jan

I have a love-hate relationship with lilac - like lavender and hyacinths I can never decide if I like the scent or not.

One of my Clematis montanas has gone totally insane this year, the shed is covered and it's climbed into some roses I didn't prune and almost onto next door's roof. Now that one smells magnificent, sort of almondy. One of the others is not scented and the other is kind of in between.

Out in the wild the gorse is finishing its flowering and the broom is replacing it - that doesn't smell as nice as the gorse. Loads of cow parsley - Queen Anne's Lace - on the roadsides, contrasting with all the rape fields, and the hawthorns and rowans are out, with a faintly disinfectant smell. A bit better than the town of Mountain Ash, which in my day was plagued with the smoke from a pit heap which burned for years.

My mother used to keep nature diaries - what would now be called phenology - and I used to do the same, listing what was in flower, which birds were in song etc. but I'd start to flag around now as so much was changing so quickly.

I can appreciate ' a love-hate relationship with lilac, lavender and hyacinths ' to some they smell heavenly to others it can be overpowering. I happen to love them    

Yes, it's funny how Clematis montanas can sometimes go crazy and spread and grow, but such a nice flower.

I do love this time of year, not so much fun if you are a hay fever sufferer though!

All the best Jan

As my mother was gradually losing her sight I put in quite a lot of scented plants. I'm fond of a lot of the others with strong smells though, the original tobacco plants - some of the modern hybrids are scentless - night scented stock, daturas (now called brugmansias), currently I have dame's violets although most of them are white . . .

. . .one of my all time favourite scents is field beans, some days you can smell them almost literally from miles away.

My rhododendron's are coming into flower now the smaller one with bright red large flowers is almost in full bloom whilst the other which is a rather large shrub and has smaller lilac flowers is full of partially opened buds   Pity spring has disappeared though

I just love azaleas and rhododendron's ... they can be so colourful.

I feel like I'm doing the BBC weather-watch! LOL!
It's pouring with rain this morning - great for ducks, farmers and gardens

Hope it may be better where you are ...

All the best Jan

I used to have several Azaleas in pots but they died, I think I failed to water them enough. One of my old man's favourites, Lutea was the bright yellow one with the amazing scent, and he had a spectacular orange-red one with a delightfully musky scent but he took its name to his grave and I was never able to duplicate it.

There are a couple of roads lined with full sized Rhododendrons including the "wild" Ponticum and some different coloured ones, but not out yet. An old friend of his had a small woodland which he planted up with rhodos and azaleas and other exotica but he died long ago and I don't know what subsequently happened. Probably by now it's a housing estate.

I've seen some spectacular honeysuckles out in hedges already, they may be wild but more likely the remnants from a long gone garden. Graham Thomas is one of the best varieties, it was found in a hedge by the Reverend Graham Thomas (there's a coincidence!) and he bred and marketed it. Also the elders are starting - old country name "love and marriage" because the flowers smell sweet and the foliage smells sour.

We've had some nice warm days and a few outbreaks of rain, hopefully enough to put off the drought for a while, but the price of asparagus has rocketed as the crop is coming to the end already.

... is Summer here?

The sky is blue - the sun is out - and it's The Chelsea Flower Show!
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show

All the best Jan

Jan1 wrote:... is Summer here?

The sky is blue - the sun is out - and it's The Chelsea Flower Show!
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show

All the best Jan

Not quite made it here it's been warm but overcast with odd spots of rain, happily the forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week is 

Up and down here, lots of sun and just nearly enough rain. The beanfields smell as gorgeous as the beans don't after you have eaten them. I had a Bee Hawk Moth in the garden, the second I've seen this year, and like the Painted Ladies quite early compared to the usual timing.

Summer has arrived   trouble is it's to hot to catch up on all the work needed in the garden but at least I've got my lawns cut and summer bedding plants potted up 

Yes, summer was certainly here today ...

Our neighbours have got a marquee up in their garden ... Bank Holiday Family BBQ I believe!
They are hoping it stays dry and we don't get any thunderstorms ... time will tell.

I do hope for all folks that have a three day weekend of fun planned it will be    

I think we may have to start a new post/thread - Summer Is Here

All the best Jan

It certainly wasn't summer weather during the night ... because we had

          and more  

The gardens certainly needed it

All the best Jan

Yes it chucked it down here too and there was a vast and stately thunderstorm, not many lightning strikes but some of them were huge, I saw one hit the ground and then immediately strike again probably a kilometre further over. We were surrounded for hours. Bank Holiday weather.

Fast forward to 2018

I think Spring is here! Or definitely on the way!

With the Beast From The East distant memory (although it may be back for a third time ) out walking locally the gardens and trees were looking quite Spring-like ... lovely to see.

Rain overnight but our usual LCHF breakfast and later today it's The Boat Race ... keeping up with tradition I'll be watching
see here
https://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-boat-race-will-it-be-oxford-or.html

Enjoy your weekend

All the best Jan

Oh dear, watching The Boat Race yesterday, it certainly didn't look Spring-like ... although it didn't seem to worry the many visitors, and although Cambridge won by a large margin, the crowds who gathered along the embankment (and in the pubs!) seemed to enjoy the atmosphere.

Don't tell anyone, but I too had a glass of white wine by my side lol! Well it's only polite to say cheers and well done to the winners isn't it!!!  

Back to today (Sunday) and the sun is not winning its battle yet to break through the clouds guess there is still time ...

Enjoy your Sunday

All the best Jani

It's been a glorious day here but I think it's the calm before the storm given the weather outlook, Easter weekend doesn't look good with wintry showers and chilly winds blowing in from the east forecast 

Distinctly mild here but not very sunny. Yes according to the forecasts this looks and feels temporary.

We've had such a beautiful Spring Day today
Oh, how I wish it may be like this for Easter, but alas I do not think that will be the case

All the best Jan

Was it John Snagg commenting on the boat race many years ago

"I can't see who's in the lead, it's either Oxford or Cambridge"

Nearly as good as the cricketing classic

"The batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willy"

A guy I know went on a cancer treatment machine course to California and one of the Yanks on the course was called, Randy Dick!