It’s still not spring … Friday saw yet another dump of snow, not a huge one like last week’s but enough to be a nuisance.

A month ago, 23 February to be exact, a tiny patch of snow at the base of a tree cleared away and a couple of snowdrops put their heads up. We were most encouraged and photographed them and thought early spring would arrive soon. Then it snowed again and again and last week we had the “March snowfall of the century” to quote the media and the snowdrops disappeared under 40cm of cover. Yesterday we discovered the snowdrops were still present, albeit looking a bit the worse for wear but brave little soldiers for all that … and now they have been covered again.

Meanwhile the rabbit has been back – looking cute as ever but we have not forgotten his ring-barking of the Euonymus bush mentioned here recently. The Carolina Wrens have been around a lot and finally we have confirmatory pictures of the two of them together. One of the Carolina Wrens is more wary than the other and spends less time in the open. Notably, they have started singing quite loudly from the shrubbery so we reckon they at least think spring is near. Red squirrels breed profusely here (in our roof for a couple of years until we managed to evict them) and a pair have been energetically chasing each other this week un and down trees and along the fences, occasionally pausing to lick seeping sap from maple tree bark – see picture at the top of this post. After not appearing for a couple of weeks, the House Finches have resurfaced near the feeders. One of the American Goldfinches was striking in his newly grown yellow feathers after a winter in drab green-grey but this is early for “yellowing up” and he is the only one.

And that, we are sorry to say, is it for this week from the garden … but this must have been the last blast of winter, things will start getting interesting soon..

TWO Carolina Wrens

Eastern cottontail rabbit

Eastern cottontail rabbit leaping into spring

Brave little soldiers

Winter’s last blast (we hope)