Camellia

Beauty on a spring morning. Petals turned toward the sun. Glistening pink surfaces. Yellow/orange centres. They look edible, like gorgeous sweets. Crisp and crunchy, or like cupcake icing. Sugar lumps of tasty colour. Then the dark green shining leaves. They add a polished background to their jewel like flowers. How strong they grow in early spring. The frost sometimes nibbles petal and leaf. But on a bright sunlight morning, what better sight.

Daffydowndillys

Daffs, Narcissi, Daffodils, Daffydowndillys…. Names old and new. The world has so many names for these spring flowers. Some sound almost musical, very flowery. The shapes frilled and fluted. Daffodils tend to be larger, with a conical centre, the narrowed part towards the stem. Then a splay of petals surrounding the centre. The Narcissi such as tet-a-tet are small and sit in clusters on top their stems. All glorious colours from pale cream, to zingy lemons and bright oranges. I’ve filtered the shapes but only lightly.

Spring is springing

Buds are bursting

Leaves are appearing

Pigeons are roosting in the rain

The sky’s are grey

Ducks and geese wander

Round Westport Lake.

A gentle walk

Taking in the view

Dampened by the drizzle

Laceworks of twigs

Fill in the gaps

Soon there will be daffodils

Crocuses and tulips

Then May blossom.

March,

In like a lion

Out like a lamb

(or vice versa)

Soon to be revealed…..

Three in one!

St David’s day (the patron Saint of Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿), Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) and the (meteorological) 1st day of Spring. All tied up in one day this year, the 1st of March. I know shrove Tuesday moves around, its generally in February I think? It is connected with Easter which falls on a full moon? And also the 1st of March isn’t always on a Tuesday! So it drifts around the calendar. Also linked with Lent, giving up something for lent, like chocolate, is a well known thing that Christians do at this time of year. St David’s day is celebrated with daffodils, Wales with dragons. I wonder if they have dragons holding daffodils. Then the first day of spring? Apparently the actual start is later in March so this must just be a way of dividing the year up into four equal quarters. Time moves on.

Tulips

Tulips in the kitchen. Now I need some daffodils for tomorrow which is the 1st of March and St David’s day.

Wales has many symbols, the daffodil, the leek and last but not least, the Welsh dragon that appears on their flag.

It is always good to get to March, it is the start of the Metereological Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. I expect we will be blasted by March winds. But tulips and daffodils cheer me up.

Remember summer

Actually it was probably September or October when I took this. Now the leaves have withered, just a few cling on to life. But come the spring I hope to transplant some of these plants into pots. I think the fushias will have survived because they have woody stems. Then the hanging baskets will go to the local nursery to have them filled for the next season. It’s always at this time of year that I start to think about spring. That is until we get to the cold blast of January to March. That’s when hubby gets enthusiastic and plants all the seeds we bought and collected in Autumn. Sadly the plants either don’t emerge or die off because they are too cold. Or he puts a whole packet of seed in one small pot! It’s amazing we get anything to grow!

Leafy

Oh for autumn

Gone away

Not to be seen

For another day

Plants die back

Leaves fall down

Winter comes

And freezes the ground

Warmth has seeped

Away from here

Brilliant sun

No longer near

Frosts and fogs

Are here this year

To chill your bones

Cold winds you hear.

So come back autumn

Come back spring

One more summer

To make me sing.