"Daffodils, which come before the swallows dare,
And take the winds of March with beauty"
Just about everyone in England is waiting for the long-delayed arrival of the daffodils. It is hard to remember a year when they have flowered so late - usually they are with us by late February, but after the coldest winter for 31 years there is as yet there little sign of the seas of gold which so lift our hearts in early spring.
In my own small garden the forsythia is just beginning to show a haze of yellow, but our magnolia stellata, which by now is usually in full bloom, is still keeping its buds tightly shut.
Spring may be late, but it will be all the more welcome when it finally arrives, and there is nothing in the world to compare with an English spring!
I went out for a walk around Isfield in Sussex on Saturday and the snowdrops are in full bloom but no daffs. In the last few years the snowdrops have been out in early January, so they're about two months behind. Hopefully the daffs will be out by the end of March/ early April when I'm on my hols in the Yorkshire Dales.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed - I am sure they will be.
ReplyDeleteThe London parks have a beautiful array of crocuses, but the daffodils are as yet only spears of green.