Monday & Tuesday 22/23 February 2016
RHS Harlow Carr
Monday was a much brighter day with some decent sunny spells. There were enough clouds about at times to give some spits and spots of rain. It was still a little bit windy but certainly not as bad as the weekend. It’s now the windiest February in my records.
We decided on an afternoon visit to RHS Harlow Carr. It was a lovely sunny afternoon but chilly in the shade with a cold stiff breeze. All the usual culprits were in flower, snowdrops, crocuses, irises, and hellebores.
Against a lovely blue winter’s sky, the bare branches of the trees provided some good photo opportunities.
The visit to Harlow Carr convinced us to make a start tidying up our greenhouse on Tuesday. It was lovely and warm in the greenhouse in the February sunshine which brought out even more of the apricot blossom.
On such a lovely afternoon it’s difficult to resist the urge to start sowing seeds. The forecast is for some cold and frosty nights over the next few days so I’ll perhaps give it another week and see what the forecast is then before making any sowings.
Wednesday - Friday 24-26 February 2016
Something Old Something New
It's been rather cold over the past few days. On some days we've had lots of sunshine but Friday has been different as it's remained cold but without any sunshine.
On Thursday we set out to capture some images of the world famous steam locomotive The Flying Scotsman. I suspected there might be a few more enthusiasts turn up than for your average steam locomotives. In no way did I anticipate the large number of people who would be there.
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We've visited Moor Road several times over the last few years. Usually there will be maybe two or three other cars parked up but on Thursday there were no parking spaces left by the time Flying Scotsman was due to arrive.
However things hadn't gone according to plan for The Inaugural Run and the train was delayed because of people trespassing on the railway in an effort to get the best photo. So the train had a helicopter checking that the line ahead was clear.
After our efforts to capture some images of Flying Scotsman we decided to head to Farmer Copley's for some lunch. We'd finished our lunch but as we arrived back at our car we spotted some lambs in a field next to the car park. Of course we couldn't resist the temptation to take some photos and videos of the lambs playing.
My videos of The Flying Scotsman is below followed by a short one of the little lambs.
Saturday & Sunday 27&28 February 2016
Trust Winter to Start Now
It’s only because it’s a Leap Year that it isn’t the end of winter meteorologically speaking. As everybody seems to be saying it has been a very mild winter. In our part of the world it’s been due to that exceptionally mild December, followed by a bit above average January and an around average February. The result is one of the mildest winters on record.
The little chart above shows the temperatures for Ossett for the winter months. The bright green line indicates the average temperature for this winter for each month whilst the blue line indicates the average temperature for that month over the last six winters.
I’ve done a similar chart for this winter’s rainfall. I’m aware that other parts of the country have had far more rainfall than we’ve had locally. Even so on visits to the plot the ground has seemed very wet and claggy. The dark blue line indicates the expected rainfall for each of the winter months.
We’ve had some cold but lovely sunny days over the last week but it has remained cold through the day. The sunshine has certainly brought out the apricot blossom in the greenhouse. We’re now waiting for our nectarine and peach trees to come into flower.
My main problem now is not to start sowing seeds too early. Perhaps I should stop reading blogs and looking on Facebook as lots of gardeners are already starting to sow seeds or even have young seedlings by now. The predictions I’ve seen are that the cooler weather will continue into March with a few milder days thrown in to add a bit of confusion. The forecast is not tempting me to start sowing seeds. I found in the past later sowings often catch up earlier sowing that have been checked by cold weather so it might be a few weeks yet before I’m tempted to tear open some seed packets.
