**Where have all our flowers gone ** what a difference a year can make

I hadnt realised it was so different. Very interesting!

Mm, so wet late Autumn, then some stiff frosts, this year. Back to normal UK weather?

Its hard to know whats normal nowadays with the weather so very unpredictable. We've had a fairly mild winter with just a few frosts and one short cold snap. Monday my thermometer read 67F 18c ..next day back down to about 5C. Since then ...fog. But mild for midwinter. When it gets to this time I always start to wonder if January will EVER end...but it will. I have a good few clumps of snowdrops at my back garden now...nothing at the front yet. They must prefer shade!

Gosh yes interesting what a difference !

Living so close to the sea, we might get the odd frost, but quite rare.......Sue you being inland would certainly get more than us! another severe one last night, but a beautiful sunny day, spent the morning in the garden, after taking a delivery of logs, which took some time to stack, decided to clean up as much winter debris as possible, would have planted the rose, forgot to buy some muck to put in the hole!! annoying!!

Still foggy here...and we just cant shoft that bug we caught after Christmas. :(

Oh dear K what a nuisance, I have heard it can take as long as six weeks....

Thanks HB. I did buy us some vitamin tonic the other day...not Berocca ,but something similar I guess. We have been taking it since Friday. Unfortunately I have had a stinker of a migraine (monthly issue) yesterday and today, although the pain has gone, the nausea has stayed. Have managed to get out though and do a little bit of GC shopping to cheer myself up a bit. :) Cold is definitely on its way out though.

A great collage from last year, DD! As you say last year was sooo mild - I had Daffs on my balcony just about opening yet this year they have hardly pushed their noses out of the compost!

Just before Christmas 2015 I saw Daffs in flower for the first time in my life! I believe I commented on them at the time. Daffs for me blooming at the end of January was very much a first!

With the frosts of late & the cold wind & fog I haven't hardly set a foot on the balcony for more than a couple of minutes! Talk about an armchair gardener!!! LOL!

Balcony we actually had a Spring like day, although the ground is very wet, and we have more rain to come, and all the bulbs are still only just pushing through.....

The bulbs in the troughs on the balcony railings as well as those on the balcony floor are now starting to make some progress! Just yesterday I was out on the balcony for a few minutes & took some photos of the Crocuses that now have buds. But this evening I was out there again & one of the Crocuses has almost opened! Tomorrow, if we get a stray sunbeam or two, it should open. :-))

That will be the first colour on the balcony in at least 3 months!

We do have lots of bulbs breaking through, we just need it to stop raining now!! and as you say some sun!!

As it's turned wet here & colder again the Crocus flower has still to open.

Going into town yesterday I noticed a couple of buttercup yellow Crocuses in somebody's garden together with a couple of clumps of Snowdrops. But no sign of the Snowdrops on our balcony yet this year!

Gad I am not the only one, still waiting!!