First Flowers.

The dramatic, slightly too dark scene caught my eye when I drove up the road with the rubbish this afternoon.

The weather has been very changeable today. First thing we had torrential rain followed by sunshine and clouds. That warm spell didn't last too long and the skies soon clouded over completely with intermittent showers including a hailstorm. The weather forecast does not predict temperatures below zero tonight so I didn't leave the car at the top of the hill.

As I looked out across the stream that runs behind the house I saw the first daffodils.Being such a sheltered spot there are always a few flowering in January but the main clumps in the rest of the garden won't appear till late February/ early March. Their bold yellow cheers up the plain winter green of the garden. I do have some of the more subtle almost white ones in the garden but they seem to absorb water more easily than the common yellow. This causes the flowers to droop and as soon as they touch the grass the slugs are up there munching away. 

I also found just one primrose flowering in the garden. 

Something, probably a mouse, has discovered that the brodalacea bulbs in the stone garden, are quite tasty and has been digging them up and eating them. So that's goodbye to the swathe of purple flowers that would have appeared in early spring. Lazy cats must all be hiding indoors.