WINTER SURPRISES

So it is February but it is still WINTER. At least you would think it was with snowdrops edging the strops and path up into the wood. That is how things ought to be at this time of year.

BUT

Yes, I know, It is a rose, a little moth-eaten (aren't we all)(well, I
speak for myself, sorry) but still a rose and beautiful, and scented.

So, speaking of scent, here is one or our sarcoccuses, or is it sarcococci? It is outside the back door (which is the side door)(which we use as a front door) and every time we go in or out its heady scent envelops us.
It is not a very pretty shrub and most of the year it is just a green bush - mind you R will be at it after it flowers to shape it into a nice ball - but at this time of year it is wonderful.

There are other things now out which ought not to be - like the wallflowers - and they have a glorious scent as well. These yellow ones are also by the back door (no I will not go into that again, you are reprieved) but we have some down in the veg/cutting beds that are nearly out.

Not all things in the garden, whether they should be flowering or not, smell good. This is the Corsican hellebore with its subtle green flowers. It has a close relation - the stinking hellebore - do not get close and have a good niff of that.
This is beautiful and it has been divided so we now have two quite large plants.

I put this photo on my Flickr site and got my knuckles rapped - I had said it was the stinking one but it ain't.

Now, gardens always produce surprises but this oriental poppy is completely out of season. Admittedly it looks a bit tattered but by February don't we all (unless we have been skiing in Florida or sunbathing on La Gomera.)

So, the Winter Olympics are coming up in Russia. You could not have held them here (unless you mean water skiing) but even the south of the USA might have been a possible venue. I hear in Russia they have changed the words to our good old dance, there Hokey-cokey. Out there they are not singing "You put your right leg in" etc but using inverse phrasing - "You PUTIN your right leg, you put out your right leg" etc.
Actually I have found that if I mention that man my readership suddenly blossoms in eastern Europe. Funny old world.

With the spring seeming to come so early so early - daffs in bud, goldfinches suddenly away from the feeders - flaunting their hormones and pairing up. (The sparrows never stop flaunting their hormones). Actually one of the most promiscuous birds is out little Dunnock. Small brown and grey bird - plenty of pics on Google - who knows which cock fathered which egg.

And so the low pressures again wind themselves into a frenzy and screech in from the wide Atlantic, rain plummets from the heavens and weather records are shattered. We non waterproof humans shelter from the chaos, watch our skin go wrinkly (okay mine is already wrinkly) and hair get tangled (not a problem for me as I have the family receding hairline and bald patch). Yet, the rain washes the goodness of the manure into the soil and later in the year the garden will be a riot of colour - well planned and subtle I mean. And as today's lack of winter frost means tomorrows plague of slugs I say come on ye amphibians, ye toads and frogs (and newts), gorge yourself and save my veg.