Dear Readers, it’s been a very full-on week, what with my uncooperative magpies and endless quantities of cellular biology for my Open University course, but today was so bright and sunshiny that I had to go for a quick gallop around the County Roads here in East Finchley. First up, I always love the tiles on the inside of the porches that some of the houses have – there seem to be a few houses with one kind of tile, followed by another couple of houses with a different style.
I love them, and I’m sorry that my house doesn’t have them, but there we go! You can’t have everything!
And there was lots to admire on this walk, not least this intrepid bumblebee queen feeding on the mahonia in Hertford Road. I must definitely plant some in my front garden, the scent is delicious and it’s so useful for early bees. This one was collecting pollen, so she might be ‘incubating’ her first few worker bees in a nest somewhere. Fingers crossed that there isn’t another long cold snap.
Someone has very sensibly wrapped up their tree ferns, keeping them snug and warm until spring.
And I’ve always really liked this silver birch, especially at this time of year when the shoots are pale purple.
There’s some stinking iris ‘berries’ in a front garden…
…a little patch of snowdrops, positively glowing….
and some periwinkle, which seems to have some flowers more or less all year.
There is a newly-planted Midland hawthorn ‘Paul’s Scarlet’, which will have bright pink flowers in the spring.
And across the road there’s what looks like another hawthorn, but happy to be corrected! I’m amazed that the birds haven’t found the berries yet!
There seems to be a viburnum for every season, and the one below, which I think is Viburnum tinus, is in full flower. I love the way that the blooms change colour.
And so, it’s amazing what there is in flower here in early February, and the bumblebee makes me think that maybe spring is around the corner after all. Plus, if you have clear skies, there is a wonderful view of Venus just above the crescent moon at the moment, well worth a look. I might try to get a photo later.
This has been a delightful walk!
Yes, it’s lovely to see everything springing back into life now that the days are getting longer – sunrise here is now before 8am and sunset after a quater past 5 – and daffodils are suddenly springing yup everywhere. I too love the decorative tiles by the front doors of some of the houses in your street. We had similar ones in the street where I grew up, about three miles from you, and your mention of them has inspired me to look through some of my mum’s old photos, as she often took pictures of my sister and me with family and friends in front of our house.
Some lovely hints of the spring to come!