Spring

 What a privilege to be able to wander out into the garden and pick a few sprigs of Forsythia to accompany some little daffodils. I'm so grateful for my garden.

Many thanks to those of you who asked about the recovery after a knee replacement operation. It's just six months now, and things are relatively alright, but I still cant bend my knee as much as I should be able to.

This is what my surgeon advised me to buy.

It's a little pedal cycle thing , and apparently the action of pedalling will 'do my knee good'.

I was fortunate to find it in our large Red Cross Charity shop!

The weather here is sunny, which is a welcome change. My Tomato seeds are in, together with Sweet peas and Nicotiana. The greenhouse is beginning to warm up and I have high hopes for some planting and planning, and generally getting on with things.

Rudyard Kipling quite rightly says;

'Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh how beautiful' and sitting in the shade'

That made me laugh!

Camellias in the rain.

I can't believe how long it is since I posted anything. I think it's that seasonal disease of 'haven't anything to say and it's raining, again'.

 However, this is the season of one of Cornwall's most loved flowers, the Camellia. So many of the varieties were brought back to the mild Cornish climate by plant hunters in the late 20th century. The lost Gardens of Heligan holds the National collection.

 Trewithen House has over 200 plants and holds the International Camellia Register.

 Camellias are very much part of Cornwall's gardens. This is in my garden, one of my favourites. Sadly I dont know its name as it was in the garden when we came here.

Each bloom looks as though it has been splashed with white paint. No two are the same.

Just one more..

You can see what sort of weather we are continuing to have. Here's a very wet pot of daffodils.

So needing sunshine!

Catalogue season.

 It seems to be the time for Catalogues. Coming through my letter box with almost daily regularity are many and varied offerings.

Would I like lovely things for my garden? Plants, seeds, beautiful furniture? Definitely!

 What about a new outfit or three? Get out of Winter clothing and splash out on lovely Spring clothes!

Why not book a holiday? And look, we're giving you 10% off, (if you book by this weekend) Special deals to Safari parks, Disney world, Cruises. No thank you.

Food boxes, meal deals, roof cleaning, et al, and that's not to mention the normal Charity appeals that regularly appear.

I do enjoy browsing through brochures, paricularly of the Garden variety. I remember my mother saying, as she leafed through Vogue, gazing at very expensive clothing, 'I get ideas from just looking'.

***********

Jus appeared in my garden, the first Primroses!

Spring is on her way.

British weather

 I'm being very British and talking about the Weather! January has been a month when very little happened and every conversation was about storms, rainfall and floods.

It was pretty frightening to read of some of the very local flooded roads. Small side roads within a mile of my village were completely cut off.

There were, of course, 'brave' souls who attempted to drive through the huge lakes of water. Most of them had to be rescued.

Local schools were closed, as were some shops. Winds were so high that it was a danger to drive out.

It was a time to stock the cupboards and make soup! Our Church has a little Soup lunch each month, open to anyone. Volunteers made vegetable soup and carrot soup. This month I made a big pan of Leek and potato soup, a lovely greeny colour topped up with a swirl of cream. 

Photo from 'the chef's wife.

There were very few people who made it to the lunch, but volunteers took soup to people at home.

My garden is so wet. But there are the first little shoots of Tete a Tete daffodils showing, a few little snowdrops peeping out, and I even found some new buds on the Forsythia.

As Eeyore said thoughtfully;

The nicest thing about rain is that it always stops. Eventually.

Daffodils

 It's so lovely to have daffodils in the house again. These aren't from my garden, but are being sold locally in aid of the Marie Curie charity, which I do support.

The daffodils in the garden are in bud and it won't be too long before there is a little glow of gold. I have so many groups of the little Tete a Tete daffodils which are showing their first little leaves.

This will hopefully be the scene in Trelissick Gardens very soon. 

At the moment the gardeners are focussing on the devastation caused by last week's storm, when so many of the huge ancient trees were blown out of the ground.

We do need the joys of Spring, daffodils, snowdrops, crocus, the posy of fresh colours to cheer us.

The storm.

 Storm Goretti has a lot to answer for. I know how much damage has been done through the whole of the country, but here in Cornwall it seems worse. St Michael's Mount has lost 8o trees out of 100. Our main road to Truro was completely blocked by fallen trees.

St Micheal's Mount

 Some of our beautiful Gardens have seen rare species crash to the ground, some hundreds of years old. Chainsaws have been going non stop clearing fallen trees from the roads.

Amazingly my garden was untouched, but my neighbour lost her greenhouse glass. The power went off last Thursday evening. I was prepared, with torch, candles and flasks of boiling water. However, I wasnt expecting the cut to continue for over 36 hours. The house began to get very cold, as I have no other power but electricity. A friend at the other end of the village, which still had power, called me to go to her for a hot drink and breakfast.

The Community really pulled together. A cafe opened its doors late into the evening for free hot drinks. A nearby Pub did the same. Contact was difficult as phones didnt work, but somehow the vulnerable people in the village were looked after.

When the power finally came on we heaved sighs of relief, only to find it had gone out again early on the Sunday morning.

Now we are back to normal in most areas, but some of the outlying small villages have had to wait days for their power to come back.

But there are daffodils almost in flower in the garden!

Happy New Year!

My very best wishes go to you all for a happy and healthy New Year.

I'm putting the year ahead firmly into God's hands.

 Thank you to all who visit my Small Moments, thank you for comments, or just for reading. There are days, and I'm sure we all have them, when 'what to write???' seems overwhelming. Knowing that maybe just one sentence has made someone happy or interested, is so rewarding

 I have such pleasure in visiting posts written by people I feel I have known for nearly twenty years. 

Long may this Community continue.