Annie's lost the plot....

Under a blanket of snow!

Its started snowing in the early hours of Friday morning and its been snowing ever since. I thought we had a lot earlier in the year but this is incredible, made worse by a brisk wind which is causing big drifts. I walked up to the allotment this afternoon as I realised that I'd left the spade there and we needed it to clear some of the snow! It is one pristine view, you are can't even see where the raised beds are.

It was up to our knees in places. This is the most snow I've seen for a very long time.
In the garden I got the ruler out (sad I know) and on the lying snow on the bench it was 8 and a half inches, ~21cm. But it is much deeper than that where it has drifted.

Poor Bob, I can't even show you any pictures of him as he is just not going out! But I can't blame him the path onto the grass is deeper than him. We've cleared a path to the side so he can at least get out. The snow is blowing into the back door making it hard to even get out of his cat flap.

 My poor sweet pea seeds, will be shivering in the mini-greenhouse.

The front garden is covered too.

Looks set to stay for a while as well as staying cold most of the week.

So I've lost the plot for a while so I'm taking advice from Bob and snuggling in for the rest of the day and he's an expert.

The thaw is on.

Lets hope so anyway. I'm ready for the snow to go now, we've had snow on the ground here for 12 days and whilst it looks pretty I want to see my garden properly again. I've been out this morning to top up the bird feeders, trying to entice the birds for the RSPB Garden Birdwatch which I'm going to do tomorrow, and you can just hear a constant drip, drip, drip.

The pots with my tulips in all still have their snow hats.

At least the sun is out. We had a top up of snow last night but I think its due to disappear soon and I think rain is forecast for later tonight. I feel for all the people at risk of yet more floods.

Bob will be happy when it has gone, but he's basking in the sun on the windowsill next to me while I write. He sits on there until even he gets too hot and then comes and sits on my knee which makes writing difficult!

The view from the window here can be a bit distracting, out onto the allotment at the back and on towards Castle Hill.

My seed order arrived from Sarah Raven this week, a package of promise for a colourful summer ahead. I didn't actually need too many vegetable seeds this year so I've just ordered a few new varieties to try but I want to try and grow more flowers for cutting this year so I've been seduced by all the gorgeous photos in Sarah's catalogue and order some flower seeds.

So I'm going to try a few that I've grown before like 'Black Ball' Cornflowers, sunflowers (I'm trying the wine-coloured 'Claret', some white Larkspur, Verbena bonariensis (which used to self-seed in the garden but the recent cold winters here have put paid to that) and a mix of Sweet Peas called 'Amethyst', more Jewel colours. Then a few that I've not tried before like Tithonia rotundifolia, which Monty Don always raves about and is a star of his Jewel Garden, Orlaya grandiflora, Salvia viridis (Blue Clary), Malope 'Vulcan', Dahlia 'Bishops Children', Echium 'Blue bedder' and a flower with the gorgeous name of the Blue Lace flower, Didicus, which has pale blue scented umbels. Bliss.

Finally, I thought I would post a picture of the Amaryllis which I got for christmas, I potted it up on the 9th January, It had been in a box and had obviously started growing in there which was a bit of a problem as it was growing sideways!

It has straightened up a bit but the stalk hasn't grown very high before it has started flowering. Oh well, the flower is beautiful though. The variety is 'Apple Blossom' and it is white with a delicate pink centre.

They are weird plants aren't they!?

A blanket of snow

So snow arrived in Huddersfield on Friday but in nowhere near the quantities that they had in the South-East. But a covering none the less and enough to get on my cat Bob's nerves. He's not a fan!

The Witch hazel, now stands out against the white snow.

My local park, which has been featured on the blog before, was busy with people making the most of the snow, sledging down the few little slopes. The recently created lake is frozen.

But in the midst of the park is a warm haven, the restored conservatory, with its tropical planting, was a delight, and all the better with a pot of tea.

However last night we caught the edge of the snow coming in from the east, it started at 10 o'clock and was still snowing till late this afternoon.Its the most snow I've seen I think since I moved to Huddersfield, this is my 7th winter, about 5 inches of standing snow but deeper in parts where the wind has blown it. As with all the lovely winter scenes that have been posted on my favourite gardening blogs the last few days, its amazing what a transformation it makes on the garden.

It has landed on any surface and built up a little, so there is a lovely soft haze to my garden chairs, the bench has a billowy cushion, the washing line is thicker than normal and there are lovely little round finials on my garden fence!

I think we got off lightly

The snow mostly missed us this weekend, it has been bad in Manchester and bad in Leeds but here in Huddersfield only a thin covering. Shame in a way as I was looking forward to a nice walk in the snow today.

This was the garden this morning, with just Bob the cat's footprints. He hates the snow and has spent most of the day today curled up asleep on the back of the chair next to the radiator.

The cyclamen was peeking through with its vibrant pink, near the lovely foliage of the Arum maculatum and in my front garden the spidery flowers of the Witch Hazel.

I went for a walk to the allotment but I shouldn't have, it looked very bleak, spring seems a long way off today. 

This is at the entrance of the site.

 

My plot looked very bare.

The kale looks very sorry for itself and I hope my Globe artichokes will survive this cold.

Nearly used all my leeks up now.

Memories of a cold winter

I've just been looking through some of my photos of my garden last year and found some of the ones in the snow at the end of November. The garden was covered but looked spectacular in its own way.

Bob wasn't quite sure what to make of it!

It was very deep in places but looked lovely covering the bare branches of the apple trees and the fennel stems.

When the sun came out it looked sparkling.