Daffodils and Castle Grounds
16 March 2011
The daffodils are coming out, bringing some welcome colour to the banks around the house after a hard winter. Some I planted in our own garden has been dug up or eaten, I assume, as they have not yet appeared, but there are plenty of others to enjoy.
I always hope the daffodils will be out when the visitors arrive at Easter. The combination of global warming, not perceptible at Eastnor this winter, and the vagaries of the church calendar and its fixing of the date of Easter often means the visitors miss out on the bright colours and have to be content with dead heads and senescent leaves instead An early Easter is often rather cold, so there will be some compensations and distractions when we hold our annual Easter treasure hunt:
Elsewhere in the Grounds, we have opened up the views to the north of the house overlooking the lake, deer park and, in the distance, the Malvern Hills The north end of the lake is gradually closing up as the bulrushes advance, but we hope to dredge it in the autumn next year. Two swans paid us a visit this week, but clearly decided we were not good enough and moved on. Perhaps they’ll come again and stay when the dredging is done.
JH-B 16th March 2011