AnIrishalternative: February 2017

Lots of signs that winter has ended and spring is here,

in the countryside hazel catkins adorn the trees, it looks lovely. Early flowers are in bloom, and birds are gathering nesting materials.

Snowdrops

and winter aconites are in flowers

as are the dwarf daffodils,

there's even some of the large daffodils flowering

single white.

double white

double purple.

and we have masses of hellebores flowering,

crocus

and anemones.

The apricot tree that I had worried might not take having moved it at the wrong time of year has suffered no set back and has a mass of flowers, all that we can do now is hope for lots of fruits, these flowers will have to be hand pollinated, it's too early for bees and other pollinating insects to do the job for us.

The first seeds have been planted,

I invested in a new set of deep root trainers, these modules are great for seeds and allows transplanting without any root disturbance. We have had some hard frosts over the last month and the broad beans in the tunnel looked sorry for themselves for a while but they have picked up again and are looking fine. The first of the rhubarb has been picked, we will have the first of the feast this evening.

This evening a large frog was spotted, heading for the pond, so we should have frog spawn in the next few days. Yes, spring is just about here.

I had a sudden urge last week to make a Bakewell tart using some of our own frozen raspberries, we had some lovely freshly ground almonds, I had forgotten how delicious a proper Bakewell tart is. Something to make again soon.

could almost be an Irish summers day, grey and drizzly.

We took a trip to the coast, just to have a change of scenery, not to collect seaweed,

we stopped off at a well known pub right on the edge of the beach, hoping to have a nice sandwich and a coffee, unfortunately the kitchen is under modernisation, so no food, but we still managed to get a decent cup of coffee.