Happy St. David's day.

Today is St David's Day so what better to begin with than some cheery daffodils.

And as it's the first of the month here are a few more flowers currently adding a splash of colour to the garden.

New to the garden this year are the drumstick primulas I found in the sad corner at Charlies which are now growing in the damp bed with the astilbes.

In the rockery this plant which I'm sure is related to aubretia is almost covered with white flowers.

The first of the grape hyacinths is flowering. I found them growing in pots and spread them out in the flower beds with the hardy geraniums.

Now these primulas might look a little sad but I'm sure they will perk up after they've had a good drink. I was at the checkout in B&M when I glanced over and saw a trolley with the plants they'd obviously forgotten to water (that happens quite often as they only have a few plants on sale). What really caught my eye was the price, 10p each. They will be quite happy once they are planted out in the garden so I bought four. 

And as it's the first day of spring (meteorological reckoning) what better than the first lamb I've seen this year?

And now for my daily weather update. What a day it has been. It seems that every time I set foot outside the weather changed. (The photos were all taken in the afternoon.) 

It was dry when I went out for my morning cuppa though I did have to take a kitchen chair out to sit on as the outside chairs were wet. As I left for the stables it was absolutely pouring and continued raining as we led the horses into the school. By the time we had finished the sun was out and it felt reasonably warm. Off I went to Morrisons and emerged after shopping into a hail shower. I arrived in town and it was sunny again but bitterly cold. I wasn't the only person who emerged from a shop with an exclamation and sharp intake of breath.

Leaving town I got to the spot where I could see across to the hills round Nant Y Moch and to my surprise they were covered in snow. Not just a little sprinkling on the tops but a thick blanket of white. I hadn't been expecting that.

On the drive home I stopped before the road plunges down to Borth to take some photos.

There wasn't a lot of snow on the slopes above Aberdyfi but plenty on the hills beyond.

I took the last two photos from home.

In my riding lesson I had Margaret again which was fun. Recently I had to skim through past posts and realised I was writing about the same things about my lessons, all very interesting to me but probably not to anyone else so I shall refrain from repeating myself. Today we rode circles and rectangles with crisp transitions (changes of pace), leg yielding and something new to me - giving (loosening) the reins for a pace or two before gathering them up again. This is to check if the horse is holding its neck and head naturally or if the rider is forcing the horse with the reins. Margaret as usual was lovely to ride and did everything I asked of her. I have finally given up with my riding boots, they are just too tight for my poor toe. Instead I borrowed a pair of the school's boots. One pair of 8s was too small, the next were fine until I went out in the yard and discovered they leaked. The last pair were just right giving my foot that little bit of extra room.

The replacement cube unit arrived while I was out but the delivery driver wouldn't take the old one as he said we should have dismantled it. As there are 18 nails in the back panels that isn't an option. I built the new unit which has the same unevenness at the front but I'm past caring. I contacted the help chat, another person in Asia I think, and offered to keep the first unit if they would give me a 50% discount but the reply was that someone will come and collect it.