Glorious weather after harsh winter

I have really been neglecting this blog of late - this is partly down to the super weather we are experiencing this week coupled to the fact that there is a considerable amount to be done in the garden. Yes there is a real feel of Spring in the air and the plants that were pegged back by this winter's cold blast are now making up for lost time! Daffodils are plentiful now in the Valley and I saw my first stitchwort of the year the other day. Although there seems to be a consensus that the spring flowers are about a fortnight late this year that particular comment needs to be qualified. I think that it would be more realistic to say that our flowers have come into bloom about two weeks late compared with the flowering times of our recent mild winters. In other words it could be more accurate to say that primroses, daffodils and the rest have flowered very early in the last few years and in 2009 they are about right, if that makes sense.

Is the weather this year going to revert to its more distinctly seasonal pattern? It would be nice to think of warm summer evenings to come with folk able to sit outside till sundown. The beginning and end of the day can be very atmospheric - there is something quite special about being up at the crack of dawn on a very still summer's morning. Absolute magic.