Back to winter

After a gloriously warm few days, which tricked everyone into thinking that the winter was over, we have once again returned to more normal March temperatures with some morning frosts and icy winds.  However, I have endeavoured to continue tidying up my garden area and found some positive things happening already.

I planted some bulbs at the end of 2012 and these produced a beautiful result last year.  Now I see they are nearly ready to flower again, producing some cheerful colour into the bed around the car park.






Also, right by these, the trusty armeria plants are showing signs of life and will soon be flowering in their lovely bright pink colour and starting to attract the early season insects.

Plants that struggled through the harsh 2012/13 winter have had a much easier time of it this year and so the two hebes that I have in tubs are looking quite robust.  They really struggled to do anything last year after being nearly destroyed by the weather but hopefully this year they will flower much more.

I am ready with seeds to plant - Hartsease to put in cracks in walls and paving, ox-eye daisy for my wild flower areas and corn marigold for the car park areas.  All of these should attract wildlife.

You might have heard the old tale - 'When in the trees the rooks build high expect the summer to be warm and dry'  Well we don't get many rooks right by us but someone who lives in another part of Scarborough has said that this is exactly what the rooks are doing.  Rooks, as you might know (particularly if you follow Autumn or Spring Watch), are incredibly clever birds.  So maybe they do know something.

Additionally I have heard that minke whales have been sighted by fishermen 25 miles off the coast.  This shows that as the sea warms up the smaller fish that these whales feed on are being attracted by the food further down the food chain.

So maybe Spring is coming?????