There have been flood warnings across Oxfordshire this week as the weather has brought rain and snow to already sodden ground. Miniature lakes and mud baths have appeared in the parks and fields around our home and the river that runs through the village has looked set to burst its banks on several occasions. As I squelched across one of the fields over the weekend, it was disheartening to see the surrounding ditches so full of weeds and littered with rubbish. Coupled with all the house building in our area, I fear this is another reason why local flooding will get worse before it gets better.
As rain has turned to snow and ice over the past few days, it seems that Winter is set to go out with a bang this year and is displaying the best and worst of its repertoire before conceding to the coming Spring.
Despite the snaps of cold weather, it does seem that we are hurtling towards Spring at an alarming rate. In our own garden, everything is looking much greener, the snowdrops are in full bloom and I am happy that the attempts I made to divide the bulbs last year seem to have been successful. The crocuses and cyclamen are also bringing splashes of colour to areas around the base of trees and the daffodils won't be far behind.
I had the embarrassing realisation this week that I can't accurately name many of the plants in my garden. I know them as varieties of "snowdrop", "crocus" and "daffodil", but could only tell you a handful of species or cultivar names. This is something I am always trying to improve (if I buy a new plant I try to imprint its full name into my memory), but frustratingly my brain seems incapable of retaining that level of information.
The importance of knowing "proper" plant names is becoming increasingly important as I become more selective about the plants I choose for the garden and want to grow a greater number of traditional varieties and native British plants. Take the daffodil for example - there are currently thousands of different cultivars registered with the RHS (separated into 13 distinct divisions), and yet the only true British daffodil is Narcissus pseudonarcissus, also known as the "wild daffodil" or the "Lent Lily". This was the flower that inspired Wordsworth and Shakespeare ("daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty"), and yet its numbers have declined drastically since the nineteenth century, due to changing farming practices, loss of woodland and the emergence of more and more garden varieties that easily out-compete the smaller native plant.
One of the best places to see the wild daffodil nowadays is in the "Golden Triangle" which lies close to the border between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Here, a ten-mile footpath known as "The Daffodil Way" winds its way through orchards, woodlands and meadows where the plant grows in profusion. If we were allowed to visit, late February and March would be the time to go!
If you are interested in reading more, Countryfile and Country Life magazines describe the commercial importance of the daffodil and provide a history of the native British variety:
(NB Amazingly, the UK produces 90% of the world's daffodils - though I am unsure how Brexit will affect this percentage):
Daffodowndilly by A A Milne
She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
"Winter is dead."
Just in case you are looking for ideas, here are a few more simple nature-related activities to try with your children:
1. Make a frozen ice decoration or an ice lantern:
To make the "lantern", we placed a jam jar (weighed down with a few stones) in the centre of a wide soup or pasta bowl. We filled the bowl with water and then added a selection of leaves and flowers from the garden, before leaving outside overnight to freeze. In the morning, we used a small amount of warm water to remove the jam jar, and then gently turned over the bowl to release the ice. We placed the upturned ice decoration into a larger bowl and added a candle to the centre.
To make the ice decoration, we simply filled a small bowl with water and then added colourful flowers and leaves before freezing. We also placed two ends of a piece of string into the water before freezing so that the finished "bauble" could be hung from a tree in the garden.
2. "That's not my snail" play
I loved this idea (forwarded to me by a friend) for introducing texture to young children who are already acquainted with the "That's Not My..." series of books.
3. Mud painting
If life brings you mud, why not paint with it?!
4. Stargazing
Wrap up warm, make a flask of hot chocolate and look up at the night sky. Jodrell Bank lists what you can look out for this month:
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