All these photos were taken at about 5pm yesterday. I’d spent a couple of hours in the garden pruning our gnarly old apple trees, balancing on a rickety step ladder with my head in among the branches without – get this – wearing a coat! Standing there, perched in the tree, listening to birdsong and feeling the warmth (yes, warmth) of the March sunshine on my back was blissful. Even more wonderful because it was the first opportunity I’d had for a few weeks to be in the garden for any length of time – work has been busy lately, which I’m very happy about but it does take over my life somewhat. Anyway, some time outdoors concentrating on pruning (which I wholeheartedly recommend as a tonic for anyone!) put a spring in my step, fresh air in my lungs and joy in my heart.

This morning, we’ve woken up to an icy wind and a forecast of heavy snow showers all day. All those poor bees who were buzzing about yesterday, and the flowers that were showing their faces to the warm spring sun… Hopefully, we’ll miss the worst of the weather here and all will be well. It’s a good thing that we hadn’t got round to cutting back the grasses and other plants – these will provide shelter – and we take a wildlife-friendly approach to our borders. Purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is seen as a weed by many but it is an important wildflower that provides early nectar for bees (see the photo above). It happily grows in cultivated soils and we have several patches in our garden. Look at it closely and you’ll see how pretty it is.

I’m frustrated that we’ll probably lose another weekend of gardening because of the weather but I’ll try to make the most of it indoors. There’s a load of housework and sorting to do, a larger desk to squeeze into my 16-year-old’s room so he can spread out his books for revising (which will take spacial awareness powers) and we have several 14-year-old girls descending on us. My daughter’s birthday was on Tuesday (14!) and today is the day for her celebration with friends. She has elaborate plans to spend a few hours shopping in Canterbury then back to ours for a film, dinner and a sleepover. For once, she’s totally fed up at the thought of snow – what would usually have her watching out for the first falling flakes has her stomping about, grumbling and fretting at the potential ruining of plans. Hopefully, it will All Be Fine. And, anyway, there’s always the possibility of snow balls…

Whatever your plans this weekend, I hope that they’re not affected by the weather and you have a lovely relaxing couple of days. I have another cake to bake and furniture to move.