It is said that if Brigid’s Day is cold, wet and stormy, then the Goddess of Winter, An Cailleach, stays in bed and sleeps on not noticing Spring creeping up on her. However, if the day is fine on 1st February, the Cailleach gets up to collect more firewood as she means the winter to go on. This year, here in Connemara, the weather was mixed and we are finding that Spring is very capricious.
Rainbow and rain clouds
During the first part of February we had “never ending” rain which seemed to go on forever and people were questioning how much more the land could take. Then we had a day of sunshine and I was working in the garden enjoying the warmth of the sun when I noticed the dog was very busy with something under a Hydrangea. I went to investigate and found this:
Can you see the Bumble Bee in the Crocus?
She must have been one of the first bees out of hibernation but our Ribes haven’t flowered yet, nor has the Blackthorn and there are few Dandelions. I hope she was able to feed from the Crocus before it closed for the evening and wrapped her in purple silk.
The light in Connemara is very special – even magical and you can always tell the season from the effect of the light on the landscape.
On our walk we saw Daffodils standing proud, golden trumpets wrongly foretelling that warmer weather was coming.
Vinca Minor – a beautiful and medicinal plant is already in flower.
The other signs of Spring were the Monbretia coming up through the grass in a truly bright shade of green.
One of my favourite things to see on a walk, and can be seen all year round, is Moss. So velvety and soft and so varied.
It makes me feel as if I am looking into a magical otherworldly realm.
After the brief sunshine, the ominous clouds returned and plunged us back into that miserable greyness.
The wind began to rise and it was bitterly cold, more so than previously. The Crocuses closed up and the poor Daffodils were beaten down. One of the benefits of the wind is that it dries up the land – but also my face when I’m outside!! Not so pleasant.
The rain returned. There was talk of snow and storms. We poo-pooed the warnings here because we rarely get snow and we are on the west coast, far away from “The Beast“!! But the snow did come. Certainly not as badly as elsewhere but enough to engender a frisson of excitement.
I hope the Daffodils will spring back when the snow melts. Strange to think of this happening outside when inside the polytunnel lemons are growing!
