Dreaming of a white Christmas?

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“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write”, so goes the popular Christmas time song & this year that’s what anybody who wants a white Christmas & lives in the UK will have to do, as we are having the mildest December it seems since 1977! As I went to live in Spain, in October, that year I can’t compare! But the weather forecasters tell us that that is so according to their records. The month isn’t over yet and more warm weather is forecast from Boxing Day here in the UK!

We had our daughter’s dog with us a couple of days last week & when I took her out I noticed there were a lot of Daisies & Dandelions in flower around where we live. So it occurred to me to look more closely while out with the dog & see just how many spring flowers were actually flowering during the middle part of December.

A few days before I’d noticed that a tree I was sure normally flowered in the spring was actually in flower at the present moment! I even took a photo of it on Sunday,20th December! I’m sure I have more photos of this particular tree as I had to go by it every day for 5 years on my way to work. Unfortunately they are locked away on the hard disk of my desk top computer, which broke down some months ago, & I now have no access to them! :(

While I was out with the dog I noticed some Periwinkle flowering in the undergrowth at the foot of a hedge, it must have been thrown out some years ago by someone cleaning their garden because I’ve seen it other times. It doesn’t grow naturally wild here in the UK.

In a garden, a few minutes later, I saw a lot of Grape Hyacinths flowering or in bud. A couple of years earlier I’d seen these same plants flowering out of spring time when again I was walking the dog but was accompanied by our granddaughter. I remember pointing them out to her. I’ve also seen lots of Primroses flowering in people’s gardens & the Polyanthus, planted by our town council in the carpark in front of the local shops, are flowering as well. I’ve seen Daffodils in gardens here with leaves between 4 & 6 inches high & in one garden I even saw a bud amongst them! I’ve never ever seen Daffodil buds in December before!

On Sunday, 20th, I went to visit a brother of mine who lives in a village a couple of miles from here. On my way back home I saw the Daffodils, that flower every year in the grass verge along the road, were in flower! I was flabbergasted! Never in my 65 years have I seen Daffs flowering in the street in the middle of December!!! I’d heard on the news programmes on TV that in some parts of the UK Daffs were flowering but I never expected to see them this close to home! I took several photos which I include here showing the Daffs flowering in the grass verge alongside the road.

• 22 Dec, 2015
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