It was blowing a gale when I took the February #ChangingSeasons photo on Windmill Hill. So too for this March photo. On Sunday the wind was so fierce I could hardly hold the camera steady, and these poor daffodils at the foot of the hill were being whooshed off their roots. You can almost hear their trumpeting distress calls.
So if, as the saying goes, March means to go out as a lamb, and not persist in roaring at us, then it needs to go in a corner and think some calming, and softly woolly thoughts. It does not need to cover us in snow as it did in the early hours of Monday morning. Not that I saw it for myself. I was up far too late, by which time it had melted. Even so, we are left with icy draughts that zoom inside any gap in one’s under-layers, or sting the ears that are silly enough to go outside without a hat.
So what is going on with all this gust and bluster? Is this more El Nino effect? In between the rain and wind storms, spring seems to have been teasing us here in the UK since December. That was when I photographed the first daffodils, albeit in the slightly milder climes of south-coast Cornwall. Meanwhile at home on Sheinton Street, the tulips have been pushing out of the garden pots since January, accompanied by flurries of white flowering currant blossom – all far too early. So spring, if you truly do mean to come this year, please get on with it, and cut out the frigid blasts. Now please visit Changing Season’s host, Cardinal Guzman. This month not only does he give us fine photos, but also a master class in sofa assembly.
Cardinal Guzman: Changing Seasons
There are two monthly Changing Seasons 2016 challenges, and you can join in at any time. Here are the Cardinal’s rules:
The Changing Seasons 2016 is a blogging challenge with two versions: the original (V1) which is purely photographic and the new version (V2) where you can allow yourself to be more artistic and post a painting, a recipe, a digital manipulation, or simply just one photo that you think represents the month. Anyone with a blog can join this challenge and it’ll run throughout 2016. It doesn’t matter if you couldn’t join the first month(s), late-comers are welcomed. These are the rules, but they’re not written in stone – you can always improvise, mix & match to suit your own liking:
Rules for Version 1 (The Changing Seasons V1)
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
- Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery.
- Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
- Rules for Version 2 (The Changing Seasons V2):
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
- Each month, post one photo (recipe, painting, drawing, whatever) that represents your interpretation of the month.
-
Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
Related: My chosen location for tracking the changing seasons is Windmill Hill and its associated Linden Field – a few minutes walk from my house in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Here are the January and February posts.
Tish Farrell 
Lovely picture, Tish. From one Windmill Hill to another – happy Springtime, Tish!
Happy spring to you too, Lynn 🙂
Well, I hope spring comes along properly soon, without too much more bluster and gust!
Indeed, yes. In its present form it’s causing me much confusion on the gardening front. Can it really be time to sow the parsnips? And other such quandaries 🙂
Well, I don’t have such quandaries, being without a garden now!
I like your dark editing.
I like that phrase ‘dark editing’ 🙂
Hmm. According to my sister, who lives in Florida, any wind over 70 m.p.h. is considered a hurricane. With the latest ‘storm’ Katy, at over 100m.p.h. seems to me UK is experiencing more ‘hurricanes’ than the USA. BTW, oh Guru, when do you think it will be safe to reintroduce my geraniums to the garden? (They are turning the conservatory into a jungle.)
Hi there, Footsy. Well, we can still get frosts in May, so at least another five or six weeks. it’s hard though when things start getting leggy indoors. They will need several days hardening off too after being inside – i.e. outside during the day, but inside or covered with fleece at night. A bit of a fiddle. Of course we might have an unexpected heatwave on the tails of the hurricanes and no frost – who knows…
Here in NE Illinois, we often have winds, making photography of plants rather interesting. Our weather seems to finally have taken a turn for the spring-like which is fine, as it’s almost April. Some of the neighbors’ daffodils are open, but ours are a bit more shy and not quite ready yet. I expect them to open any day now and what a happy day it will be. In the meantime, I have grape hyacinths, yellow tulips, and an orchid of lovely but indescribably color (as well as basil, aloe vera plant and a few other, on our hearth, adding welcome color.
janet
More power to your spring garden, Janet. It’s all sounding very hopeful.
Glad to see you back ‘in the fold’ again, Tish, and I love your atmospheric, cowering daffs. 🙂 Truly, it hasn’t been so bad here. We’ve had some beautiful days, and I was quite surprised to see Katie lashing the south east on the news. I’ve been too busy frolicking with family. 🙂
Lovely to have been frolicking, Jo. I’m hoping to get back into frolic mode myself, though it won’t happen while this cold wind blows 🙂
Love this “dark editing”! There so much life in this bunch of flowers!
Jo, can I dare to invite you to participate to the “seven-day nature challenge/ the art of camouflage ?”
anotherdayinparadise , joining her friend Gill , invited me to post for seven days and to nominate another blogger to do the same……and so I’m inviting you….
I’d be very glad if you could find the time for this challenge!
A big hug , in the meanwhile!
http://unavistadisanfermo.wordpress.com
The weather this last weekend ahs been crazy, hail, gales and glorious sunshine! It’s been a good long season for those daffs though 🙂
Yes, all change it certainly has been. In between my rant about cold wind, we did have one morning when we had breakfast outside, and I don’t remember ever doing that in March before. And you’re right about the daffodils. We’re lucky they’ve been going for so long. And today we have SUN again.
We are still in southern Florida and it frustrates me that there isn’t the drastic change of season that I am used to in Michigan. What I notice is increase temperature and humidity – not easy to photograph. 🙂
It’s quite hard living in a climate that changes very little, isn’t it. I used to get very confused when we lived in Kenya – a bit like being at sea without a compass. And VERY hard to document in photos. I bet you could think of a way though…:)
“at sea without a compass” is very accurate. As soon as I find what changes I’ll grab my camera. 🙂
Great picture of the come in-go out spring! The daffodils have learned the lesson that it is better to bend than break 🙂
A good motto for life, Tiny. Hope you’re OK. Tx
I have recovered from my two trips, still busy for the next one month. But feel much better as I don’t need to plan for more trips right now.
Glad to hear you’re OK 🙂
Wind or no, great to see daffodils in bloom, Tish. Still waiting to see buds on my daffodils, although a neighbor’s will be in bloom any day now. I never did like her. 😀
Daffodil envy, eh John. That’s not really you 🙂
Maybe el nino. This is one of the articles I found (you got me curious).
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-nino-enters-new-phase/
That’s a very interesting article. Thanks for the link. I now remember hearing a very gleeful climate scientist talking about this back in the summer – on the lines that ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’. He was talking specifically about Europe, and that for the rest of the year at least, we would see the worst El Nino effects ever. More than a bit worrying, but a reminder that we are all on one planet, and an event in one part of it can indeed affect us all, and in multiplying ways.
😀
I love the plaintively humorous admonitory tone of this, and the photo really captures the mood of your words.
You are lovely!
Crazy weather indeed Tish. We have just had the warmest March on record, averaging 1.7 degrees more than the previous high. And still summer weather stays with us, to the delight of the holiday people.
Good to make the most of good weather, but it is more than a little worrying.
It is and especially for the garden, it suffers in this hot weather with no rain at the moment, so back to afternoon watering duties.