Nature Blog by Jenny Bourne

Last Friday this honey bee was out foraging on our mahonia in comparatively mild temperatures; since then we’ve had nights and mornings of hard frost and there’s not been much sign of pollinator life on the plots.

A very mild start to the New Year so far with even a first butterfly sighting this week, possibly a Red Admiral fluttering vigorously over the plot towards the park wall. And under the old apple tree at the back green shoots appearing, narcissi, snowdrops and hyacinths just peeping through the fallen leaves and plant debris.

Looking back to this time last year it seems that we had very similar weather – mild with a lot of rain: ‘17o forecast for tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, in flip flops and shorts…?”

We’ve gone through what feels like Arctic conditions through the past couple of weeks, with the harshest, coldest spell of sub-zero temperatures for as long as I can remember.

Our peas are in flower, the potatoes planted for Christmas have got blight and there’s blackfly on the broad beans! My next door plot neighbour and I were chatting a few days ago about the unusual November weather we’ve been experiencing.