Saturday, June 21, 2014

Shortest Day

21 st June - the shortest day! Hooray! only 6 weeks to go until the beginning of August and Very Early Spring!

Very Early Spring is a fifth season I made up with the specific purpose of reducing winter to two months instead of three. Yes the weather in Very Early Spring can be much the same as winter, but I have observed, over many winters, that some plants (and weeds) in the garden very definitely wake up and start growing long before the official first day of spring - September the 1st. So there - I'd rather side with the plants on this one, rather than linger in the gloom of winter for another 4 weeks. The Magnolia Stellata outside our house is already flowering and surprisingly some narcissus have already started blooming - the earliest ones are usually blooming in August but these Early Cheer are already going for it. I have never seen them out this early. Maybe the wet and gloomy March tricked them. That green splot on the lower right hand petal is an aphid  - somehow it has survived the frosts!

2 comments:

  1. I envy you your short, mild winters. One of the German judges during the most recent winter Olympics was heard to comment, “Of course the Canadians are doing so well; they have winter 13 months of the year!”

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    1. We are lucky aren't we. I was pottering around the garden in not much more than a tee-shirt on a lovely nor-west day with its mild Foehn wind, yet an hour and a half away people are skiing on the mountain! The real cold comes after the shortest day ...

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