well there aren’t many plants that like to flower in this cold weather. The snowdrops are up but the buds haven’t quite opened yet.  Other bulbs are poking through but will need a few more weeks to flower.  Some of the hellebores are flowering whilst others are not.  The best one so far is the white one in the woodland area (that I call my stumpery due to it having one stump).  Also in that area is the witch hazel with it’s fiery orange flowers.  I do however have more colour in the conservatory with the cyclamen and bulbs coming up.  There is a lot of green in the garden with the ferns, grass, evergreen shrubs and ivy.  Shame the cold hasn’t got rid of the greenfly.
I thought that I would try and get some of the fallen leaves out of the pond but only the top couple of centimetres are melted and the rest of it is frozen.  Most of the leaves were frozen in so I am going to have to wait.  Poor frogs and other pond dwelling creatures.  In the past we had a pond heater on throughout the winter but something kept hauling it out leaving it dangling over the side and it would melt a hole in the pond liner.  The pond liner is concreted in now so we have been trying to keep a small hole open in the ice.  Doesn’t look like we managed to do that so any noxious gases will be accumulating under the ice.  The last time that happened a few dead, bloated frogs rose to the surface once the pond ice had all thawed.  Don’t worry I didn’t take photos.

white hellebore

Hamamelis inter Diane

conservatory bulbs