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Friday to Sunday  01-03 March 2013


Cool Start

March has started much as February ended on a rather cool note. Despite a lovely sunny day on Saturday the temperature didn’t manage to reach 10°C. That makes it a month since the temperature last made it into double figures. We managed 10.2°C on 04 February 2013 and we’re still waiting to exceed this value again as we move into March. On the positive side it has been dry for a couple of weeks so hopefully soil conditions will be improving on the plot.

On Saturday we decided on a trip into the Yorkshire Dales for a little bit of photography. We visited the Wensleydale Cheese factory at Hawes and had our lunch there in the restaurant. They do dishes without cheese in case you were wondering.

 

 

#top

There are still some bits of snow about high on the tops. This is the road o from Hawes to Thwaite. It was still a little bit bleak even when the sun managed to peak out from behind the clouds.

We headed back to Hawes and then on towards Dent capturing some shots of Dent Head Viaduct almost bathed in wintry sunshine before the sun disappeared behind the peaks.  

The famous Settle to Carlisle Railway winds through this picture to Dent Station just visible as a few small building to the top right hand corner of the photograph. At an altitude of 1150 ft (350.52m) Dent is famous as the highest main line railway station in England.

Monday  04 March 2013


Frost Proof?

It was a cold cloudy start to Monday but into the afternoon although the sun did manage to break through, it didn’t warm up very much with the maximum temperature only making it to 5.7°C.

The sun helped to bring out a few more spring bulbs so no matter what the weather throws at them they put on a display to convince us that spring really is just around the corner. These miniature daffodils were out in the afternoon sunshine.

On our back border our Katherine Hodgkin bulbs are continuing to flower and have now been joined by this iris reticulata Alida bringing a real touch of early spring colour to the border.

Our hostas which surround the pond are planted in large terracotta pots. When we buy any clay pots we always ensure that they are labelled as frost proof. I’m now beginning to wonder exactly what that means.

These are the tell tale signs on the patio that the frost has been at work. Perhaps the pots are frost proof down to just a few degrees of frost although this winter hasn’t been that cold. The pots are a few years old now so perhaps I shouldn’t expect them to last forever.

It does give the edge of the pots a rather old weathered appearance so it’s not all bad. I suspect we might be looking for some more frost resistant terracotta pots before too long.

Tuesday  05 March 2013


Just Our Luck

Apparently for lots of Britain Tuesday was a spring-like day with temperatures getting into the mid to high teens. However, that wasn't the case for us as we were unlucky enough to be engulfed in mist all morning and cloud for most of the afternoon.  The sun did manage to peek through around the middle of the afternoon.

This image represents the temperatures around England and Wales just before 17:00. Lots of lovely double figures about except for the north east where temperatures remained stubbornly in single digits.

I did have a look around our cold greenhouse but there’s not a lot of activity in there at the moment. Our potted hydrangea plant bought last summer and kept in the greenhouse to over-winter has survived. New green shoots are emerging from the cover of last year’s old dead flower clusters which were left on to provide some extra winter protection.

To add insult to injury there’s now talk of a cold spell of weather starting early next week. I don’t understand how this can be as we haven’t had anything else since the end of January when we last managed an hour above 10°C

Wednesday  06 March 2013


Yuck

I think that sums up Wednesday’s weather.

As the weather was so yucky and to have a little break from decorating the hallway I decided to try a little bit of Macro photography or in this case macro videography if that’s a word. It took me a while to figure out how to get set up to do this but in the end I managed to get a clear image on the camera’s screen instead of just a fuzzy image. Getting objects into focus is an art in itself. Below are three pictures which convince me more time devoted to this type of videoing might yield some worthwhile pictures.

African Violet

African Violet leaf

This chaffinch sort of accidentally came into view as I was trying to find the African violet flower. All in all I think there’s some promise. I started off having to go back to the video instruction manual which I always think is a bad sign. Sort of got there in the end by accident. The light for taking all the shots was dull so startling shots were never going to be the order of the day.

It’s back to some more decorating today  - Thursday.

Thursday  07 March 2013


Decorating Weather

Thursday was yet another cold grey day without any hint of sunshine and some light drizzly rain. You could say it was good weather for staying indoors and getting on with our decorating.

This is the forecast for the next five days. Doesn’t look much like spring is on the way at the moment. Don’t think that there’s any need to rush the decorating.