Snow Forecast

Out of necessity I must push aside fear of machines.  The firewood has run out, and with snow forecast I need to cut more: our logburner is our primary heat source when the weather gets truly cold.  This fear of mechanical equipment has been a crippling side-effect of bereavement.  Although as a professional gardener I have used mowers from reel to tractor-driven, weed-eaters, scrub-cutters and chainsaws the new fleet that Elwin and I equipped ourselves with last year has daunted me since his death.  Weeks passed before I could bring myself to use our new mower - but the grass was getting long.  Although my father was  a diesel engineer, and motor mechanic, and the mystique of old machinery holds me in thrall, I would rather be help-mate to the machinist than operater.  But yesterday I managed to cut a supply of wood, and then whip around and prune a few fruit trees lest confidence dissipate. 

Time to notice the first plum blossom - about a week ahead of last year.  Wild hedgerow dweller, this specimen.

A Southerly Behind.  The Front came, as they do, like a wild thing, pushing a restless wind before it, and then thrashing twigs and leaves from trees in its path.  But this was an early foretaste of what was to come, and the band of cloud travelled quickly overhead, thundering ahead of this clear trailing edge.  A fine cold afternoon eventually gave way to snow showers this evening.

Wild cherry plum  Prunus cerasifera