Feels like Spring is pushing through

The winds maybe high but the sin is out, clouds scud by and the birds are most definitely in Springtine mood.

I feel it too.

I want to act a bit like a March hare, jumping and bounding all over the fields, leaping in the air and basking in that balmy air. 

I'd want to and would love to, but the old joints are almost wooden with age.

Sigh. 

The mind is willing but the body, like an aging car, needs constant attention and careful handling.

Hey, I still dream of running along the beach and falling into the waves. Of playing with the damp leaves, finding early leaf buds on hawthorn and eating them and looking for aconites just opening.

Yep, I can sense it and the winter blues are starting to lift.......mind you I've soo much gardening to get done. 😄There's always the down side. 🙂

Bumble bees, violas and warmer weather

That cold snap we've just experienced was harsh. Fortunately, it did something important, it stopped Spring in its tracks, well, for a few weeks anyway.

The ground is certainly thawing fast and walking round the woods today, I could see buds beginning to open once more, squirrels out chasing each other and that almost balmy warmth in the air.

My worry is, we are in a short window of warmth which will trigger all sorts of movement in nature; something which is highly confused already. These changes in our usual climate is certainly faster than the natural world is able to adapt to.

Take for example the bumble bee.

It over-winters in crevices where it hibernates until the ambient temperatures wake it up. 

Usually by this time, the first Spring flowers are starting to come out ready to be pollinated. Plant supports bee and bee supports plant. A well developed strategy which allows the plant to create seed and the bee to feed, reproduce and continue pollinating other plants as they come out.

Well that's the theory.

I hunted for anything which was in flower; some magnolias had attempted to open but were caught by the frosts but that was it.....oh apart from the sweet box which fills the air with perfume around about now.

I came home thinking I might need to put out some bee flowers (brightly painted MDF flowers with sugar water in the middle) out...and then

I remembered the humble viola. Always flowering, always pushing through and most importantly, always there. 

A lone bumble bee went from flower head to flower head possibly getting its first food since late autumn.

Next year I'll plant many more violas in my garden and anything else I can think of which will provide food for our humble bumble because without them this planet would lose many plant species as well as that lazy buzzing when the sun is warm and we drink coffee outside once more.

Hopefully this will stop the advance

Life in my garden seems most confused. Some plants are nicely tucked up as they should be whilst others think Spring has sprung and are showing definite signs of sprouting.

I grow a lot of soft fruit. My loganberry is already thinking of opening it's fragile buds. 

My hyacinths are showing their flower crown and my bulb irises are already in full leaf ready to send up their flower spikes.

I noted a queen bumble bee up and about, but with nothing to eat, she will have woken early and hopefully not died as a result.

Changing weather patterns are certainly starting to show everywhere, not to mention on farm land which seems to spend more time flooded during the winter than it has done in the past.

Country lanes are almost impassable due to excessive flooding and even the 3 m deep ditches along the edges resemble ponds. 

I must admit I was travelling along a lane the other day to be greeted by a pair of mallards happily ensconced in the flooded ditches.

So, how is my part of Kent holding up?

Poorly is the answer.

We were considered the market garden of UK. Not any more. Vegetables from overseas are cheaper in the supermarket than farmers can grow them for. Weather is so unreliable too, it makes for expensive outlays not experienced in the past. 

So most are getting out. 

Solar farms are springing up as are new housing estates, neither of which seem to help the land drain well.

The tree surgeons are out virtually 365 days of the year attempting to keep our ancient trees going or removing those which have given up the fight.

It's a sad story but not unexpected. 

Me thinks we are in for hotter, drier summers where droughts are commonplace and fires spread across fields and estates as we saw the year before last. 

Winters will be mild but very wet, stripping the soil and dumping it in the rivers and streams, flooding homes and villages and as this year, cutting some places off from surrounding towns. 

Already we've had guidance on preparing for floods; what to do as preparation in advance, what to do in case or when it happens, what to expect from local authorities and 999 services.

Sounds almost dystopian.

Me? I'm going green as much as I can. I eat local to support our community and travel by bus much of the time. 

Now it's the future proofing of the garden. 

Almost there but the remaining plants which are struggling with soggy roots in winter and rock hard clay in the summer are giving way to shrubs. Once that's done it's time to sit back and enjoy.