This winter feels interminable. Surely in earlier years daffodils have been blooming by now, snowdrops long gone.
Well, no. It’s true that in some years snowdrops have appeared by this date.
These snowdrops were shivering in the cold on April 1, 2016.
Crocus have bloomed.
These crocus were lighting up the hillside on April 4, 2010.
Pulmonaria have added their touch of colour.
This pulmonaria or lungwort was blooming on April 4, 2010.
But it is also true that this April is better than some. A lot better.
This photo from April 7, 2013 shows a very wintery garden.
Last year in early April, the crabapple allée was snow-free and the central path, still unseeded, a straight line of mud.
Snow lingered in the ditches alongside the crabapple allée on April 2, 2018.
This year on exactly the same date, patchy snow still covered the field around the crabapple allée. But at least this year the path will soon be green.
I took this photo a week ago, on April 2. It looks much the same now.
Comparing photos from different years gives me hope. The photo below from a few years ago shows magnolia in the Lower Garden in full bloom on April 23. And that’s only two weeks away.
Spring came early in 2012.
Whatever the weather, though, these guys will still be hanging around, looking like they own the world.
Luckily deer don’t like barberry bushes. Otherwise those shrubs would be stubs.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
