Not drab at all

Did someone say Spring? Hah! We're back to Winter with a vengeance.  It's warmer in Montréal today than it is in Dublin. We've frost and snow forecast for this evening and tomorrow. We've weather alerts, bitterly cold winds, even the possibility of blizzards. It's the kind of weather that makes those who don't know the difference between weather and climate say things like "what global warming? what climate change?"

Here's something that combines winter and spring into one beautiful image. I had tried earlier to take a quick macro photo of the first blossoms on our tiny dwarf cherry, braving the rain and the wintry weather. But 'quick macro' is an oxymoron. So I wandered indoors and asked our wonderful resident photographer to do the needful. Here's what he did:

Dwarf cherry in the garden, photo by BvG, more at catchlight.ie

So, the weather forecast had me trotting out to the glasshouse this evening to cover the alpines and other plants in the greenhouse with a few layers of newspaper, in the hopes of protecting them from the frost tonight. You see I have to get serious about cosseting those alpines now because I came first in one of the categories at our local alpine show this weekend. Am I nerdy or what? To add to the delight (not to mention the astonishment) the plant that won was the one I was seriously worried about a couple of months ago, in the depths of winter when it was a seriously drab Draba.

Now:

Happy Draba longisiliqua

Then:

Sad Draba longisiliqua, in January

Draba back home with other alpine companions, including a new (to me) Saxifrage

There was lots of inspiration at the show, but I'll limit my nerdy self to just two photos:

Saxifrage grisebachii at our local Alpine show - love the pink and green

Saxifraga sp., also at the show, I suspect there's a Fibonacci spiral lurking here

Weather, family commitments and a dead car battery (many thanks to our gallant rescuers) meant that time outside was curtailed this weekend. While waiting for our Sir Galahads to arrive (complete with jump leads and AA membership), I walked the avenue of Powerscourt House and had a look at the beech and other trees. If I remember correctly, some of the older beech trees in the gardens and avenue there actually comprise several trees planted very closely together, which was a ruse at the time of planting so that the tree would appear of greater girth and age than it really was. Here's a rather dark photo--it was that sort of day--that seems to bear this out (look closely at the trunk, which is in fact made up of several trunks combined into one):

Powerscourt Beech(es)

Have a good week all.