The roses are all pruned, and I’m about to make a start on the various cornus shrubs, which are hurtling out of dormancy. A nice surprise today, when I looked at the mini greenhouse: the fuchsias in the hanging baskets are coming back to life. Their geranium and lobelia neighbours, however, did not make it through the winter, but there are geranium cuttings in the sitooterie - one of which I’ve had to discourage from flowering too soon. Anyway, the hanging baskets are tidied up, top dressed with fresh compost and grit, watered well nd put back under cover. The roses are responding well to my usual brutal pruning and feeding. The crocuses and snowdrops are starting to go over, but we have various lots of daffodils in flower, and tulips and hyacinths are coming on.
All this may have been down to the extraordinarily mild weather in recent days. This may change: we had quite a heavy hail shower this afternoon: short sleeves one day, hailstones the next. Well, let’s hope for the best. Our neighbour’s pink camellia is covered in flowers. Our white one is budding up pretty well, but the red one is less promising.
The mild weather has encouraged me to get out a bit on my hind legs, which is helping me towards my still very modest daily step count goal. The knees are not encouraging such efforts, and winter inactivity has sapped energy levels and added weight. But I’m still the right side of the grass, so that’s something to be grateful for.
Having lately had major expenditure on the fence following storm damage, wind has been somewhat on my mind (as well as elsewhere, of course). For yesterday’s German conversation gathering it was my turn to host, so I sent out a couple of pieces about the winds that afflict Switzerland, the Bise and the Föhn. For such a banal subject, the dialogue was really pretty good, and we all learned some new vocabulary. It’s a friendly little group, and it helps me to cling on to what remains of my fluency.
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