february

Incredible rain over 3 days 2/3/4th February, but this has made little difference to the flow of water to the springs on the side. This shows that most of the water flowing must originate as groundwater. The River Dwyfor has had some huge floods and generally the weather has been very mild after the cold snap. It has been depressingly overcast with no sunshine.The Hamamelis is well past its best and has almost finished. Camellia sasanqua has practically finished flowering. The Daphne buola is now at its best as are the snowdrops. The identification of these are really confusing, and I am still not certain what is what. Some Narcissi are nearly out depending on where they are growing in the garden. Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis Rosea' has also almost finished. Rhododendron 'Cilpinense' and R. dauricum 'Midwinter' are almost flowering. There are well over 100 frogs in the main pond (and what a racket) and a tremendous quantity of frog spawn has been produced. Hopefully these will result in many more frogs - perhaps another pond is necessary
12 February 2004 - what an incredible spring like day! The dawn was an amazing sight, all shades of red as the sun rose behind the Rhinog mountains near Harlech. The saying "red sky in the morning, shepherds warning" - seems not to be true these days. The bees seem to have found the Acacia flowers which now are fully out and have a sweet scent.
14/15th February 2004 - two days of sunshine and relative warmth. Bird song all through the day; bees working practically every available flower, inspecting everywhere and drinking avidly from dew and the springs on the side. Bumble bees seen on Sunday the 15th in the early afternoon. The daffodils are opening everywhere.
26th February 2004 - Snow!! after a week of cold sunny days with frosts at night. This is unusual for this area at these low altitudes. Six years ago there was a day of similar conditions, however this time snow is expected to stay with us until at least the weekend.
27th February 2004 - snow on side has melted with patches lingering in the shade, however as I write this 5.10 p.m. it is snowing again. If the sky clears, there will be a really hard frost. Rhododendron dauricum has been affected as have most of the Camellia flowers, at least the williamsii hybrids drop their browned flowers not like the japonicas which seem to tenaciously hold on to them. The lower part of the garden has a thick layer of snow.