March 2013 was the second coldest March on record. It was bone chillingly cold for the entire month, and in fact, although the first month of Spring March was actually colder than December, January and February. Arctic easterly winds, from Siberia, were the norm for the entire month. Taking wind chill into account I don't believe there was a single day where the temperatures made it over 0 degrees Celsius. The average daytime temperature for March is around 8 degrees Celsius.
Consequently, most of the plant life in the garden is still in hibernation. The above photo shows a cherry blossom tree on the 31st of March with no blossom at all. Looking at at the same tree from the 29th of March 2011:
Just a little different! What the picture above doesn't show is the insane buzz of bees that are in the cherry blossom There must have been hundreds of them. This year, so far I have seen one single solitary bee, which I saw on the past weekend. We finally had temperatures of almost 10 degrees, this past weekend (6th and 7th of April) and I was lucky enough to see the first bumble bee in our garden. I am just happy that somehow there are some bees left after the insane extended winter we have had.
Looking at the long term forecast it seems as though we are now through the winter and that hopefully the garden should now explode into growth. Here's hoping anyway as there has been a lot of damage caused by the builders over the past year! Think the garden might take a year to recover yet!
Saturday the 6th of April 2013 was a joyous day for me, as it was the first day I went outside in 2013 and didn't feel as though I would shiver to death! It felt so warm - I think we hit the majestic level of 9 degrees Celsius! Relatively speaking that felt remarkably warm! I am a creature of warmth and the London Winters, especially when they last 5 weeks longer than they should, drive me crazy.
Cheers
M
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