Saturday again, the weeks are flying by. I’m so glad we’re in the last weekend of January and Spring is almost in touching distance, although it didn’t feel much like it earlier this week when we had a couple of deluges of snow. We were supposed to get more today, but so far we’ve had a few flurries but nothing to write home about.

My first couple of points are snow related. I’ve discovered that snow is not nearly so bad if you don’t have to drive in it, or at least not very far. In normal times, my commute is nearly twenty miles each way, and it’s a horrible thought that you could get stranded in snow halfway between work and home. This year though, with working from home, I didn’t have to worry about it and I felt able to enjoy the snow so …..

… I made a snowcat.

This next photo hasn’t come out as well as it looked in real life which is so often the case unless you have a fancy pants camera. The light is amazing when the world is covered in snow, isn’t it? The red berries of this shrub against the white background lit up by the light reflected off the snow looked stunning. It was all very peaceful. Although I don’t normally enjoy snow, I do appreciate the almost eerie quiet that seems to come with a covering of the white stuff.

Having said all that, I am happy that the snow’s gone now although I didn’t like watching my snowcat die a melty death!

The next photo is in the front garden. My Camellia has had buds since before Christmas, but so far nothing’s happening. They seem none the worse for the cold snap though, and hopefully the flowers will bloom soon. I can’t actually remember what month it normally flowers – I just know that the flowers don’t last nearly long enough for my liking! They’re so beautiful.

Also in the front garden today, I noticed the bluebells are starting to push through into the world again. After I noticed this first cluster, I noticed loads more. We have an abundance of bluebells in the front and back gardens and for me, they really signify the start of my favourite months of the year. It seems to take ages for them to flower, but once they do, we have a bluebell wonderland for a few weeks.

My penultimate point is very bizarre. I was wondering around the garden in the sleet this afternoon looking for things to include in this post, and I glanced over at the empty raised bed where I grew petit pois and carrots last year, and I spotted a leaf that looked suspiciously like a carrot leaf. Surely not, I thought, but yep, it was a carrot! In January! How has this happened?

Finally, I have some bunnies to share. I saw these on a gardening hour on QVC a few weeks ago and couldn’t resist. I mean, who could resist Peter Rabbit? This is probably not where Peter and his sisters will end up living, but I’ll have fun deciding where they can go. Hopefully I’ll be able to find somewhere I can see them from the house.

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I found it easier to find points this week which I find encouraging. The garden is starting to come to life again, now I just need some dry weather so I can get out there and do some tidying up and start planning my Summer in the garden.

As ever, don’t forget to pop over to the Propagator’s blog to check out all the other Sixes published by this lovely community.

Saturday again! The end of another week of working from home and the start of another weekend of lockdown! However, also a week closer to Spring. I’m still struggling to find anything of much interest in the garden, so much so that my final point today is from someone else’s garden that I saw on a lunchtime walk this week – although I do really wish it was in my garden!

Even my garden owl has had enough of it all this week and has collapsed amongst the Euphorbia and Rhododendron! I left him having a rest for now – the weather’s not great so he’ll only fall over again if I set him upright!

This is one of my Festuca Intense Blue babies that self seeded on the bistro. They seem to be able to cope with whatever the weather throws at them so this baby will be fine to grow into an adolescent once it can shake the snow off. It doesn’t look particularly blue, does it? The parent plant was very blue when I first bought it home, but all the babies are much more green than blue. Still gorgeous though so, c’est la vie!

Next is my first blueberry bush. I have some ericaceous compost in the garage and have been intending to repot this for months but it’s just always been too *cold/dark/wet (*delete as appropriate*). Must get round to doing this soon before it begins its new growth ready for lovely juicy blueberries this Summer. I have a second blueberry bush now (which is already lovingly potted up) and I’m hoping to promote some kind of competition between the two to get the most blueberries! The expression on my little dragon’s face I think is very appropriate for the current environment!

Now I’m moving on to a purple theme. I’m glad I stopped to prop this Hellebore under its chin! It’s had flowers for some time but they’re all resolutely pointing down towards the ground, so much so that they look like they’re not open, but open they are, and look how beautiful this one is. What a shame they’re being so bashful and not displaying their beauty for all to see.

Next purple plant is my Pittosporum. This changes colour throughout the year, sometimes being a mix of green and black as the new leaves come through, but at the moment it definitely fits in with a purple theme.

Finally, as mentioned, a plant from someone else’s garden on my walk. A gorgeous, and very purple Callicarpa Bodinieri. Regular readers will know that I acquired one of these around about this time last year, but that unfortunately it hasn’t produced any berries this Winter, so, suffice it to say, I was very envious of this one when I saw it. Another job on the list: relocate Callicarpa Bodinieri and keep fingers crossed.

There we have it, a very quick Six this week, and now I’m off to relax in a hot bubble bath with a magazine. Blissful! While I’m doing that, why don’t you check out the Propagator for more Sixes.