But the ice was thick enough on Emsworth Mill Pond yesterday for the ducks and gulls to walk on it

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But the ice was thick enough on Emsworth Mill Pond yesterday for the ducks and gulls to walk on it

Interesting. I always thought the Town Millpond was partly salt water and flushed via the sluice gates every month but I guess the Westbrook stream keeps it as freshwater.

And ice on a saltwater pond would be very rare.

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This looks like late March here. 

Snowdrop shoots just peeping through.
Have seen them in bloom by last week of January but not this year it will be mid-Feb like most years.

Nothing else much is springlike but birds are singing again especially Thrushes and Robins.

Those norh York moors must look bleak without snow cover. 😆 

Hints of the snowdrops in the garden starting to flower over the next week or snow. However there is no chance I will be cutting the grass for a good couple of months yet I would have thought. Too little sunlight and too cold ground.

All in all, it's more or less "normal" in terms of vegetation around here for the time of year.

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No signs of spring here, the regular cold and penetrating frosts have seen to that. If the milder weather arrives next week, however, I expect to see some signs appear......😉

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Unlike last January when, botanically-speaking, spring was afoot, (there were full size narcissus varieties in full bloom in November), it's not actually underway in the south this year, so I'll save my more excited posts for when it really gets going. This is a more sensible season, this year, and I expect to see spring bulbs like snowdrops edging out by the end of this month, crocuses in early February and earlier narcissus by the end of February. A cooler late winter/ early spring has its merits: the snowdrops and crocuses will last well into March.

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Hints of the snowdrops in the garden starting to flower over the next week or snow. However there is no chance I will be cutting the grass for a good couple of months yet I would have thought. Too little sunlight and too cold ground.

All in all, it's more or less "normal" in terms of vegetation around here for the time of year.

Makes sense Doc; actually, most grasses have threshold trigger temperatures for healthy growth; numerous agricultural and horticultural varieties, including cereals, require a 6 degree C sustained temperature to really get going and apart from a few coastal locations, that has not been achieved in the south under this continental influence lately.

The ground currently is hard-packed and still frosty where the sun don't shine, so to speak.

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Only signs of winter at the moment here Bert!

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Only signs of winter at the moment here Bert!

That could easily be here, too, WI; I'm not convinced anywhere other than Larry's sort of location (far SW) could be really spring-like this year.

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Well burtie lives in unique cold spot some place in the middle of nowhere people... It's even cold in his part of Hampshire in the summer.

Anyway despite a few cold days of late the increasing day lengths, and solar power are playing (like every year) their part in encouraging early spring. Though as far as I'm aware nobody has claimed spring has actually started 😏

I was actually out in the forests out on the South Downs last week and even here new plant life had begun; nettles, mustard family, and even some large vegetation that will be in flower soon (don't know the name).

Today in the only place on earth at 57 degrees north that doesn't get frost or snow in winter:

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Funny how you get used to certain temperatures. It's just about touching double figures here today but with blue sky and a strong sun it feels positively balmy. We've had a truly Baltic few days down here in the South East.

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indeed things are far less advanced than last year and previous 2 years here after this cold frosty  two weeks no early daffodils this year

indeed things are far less advanced than last year and previous 2 years here after this cold frosty  two weeks no early daffodils this year

Feeling very spring like on the south coast, 10c , light breeze, outside tables full along the sea front and the rooks gathering high in the trees, ready for nesting...the Atlantic doors are open and so are the doors for the next season....down here at least.  

Its really noticeable how different the airmass looks and feels today too. We've had 2 weeks of continental flow with polluted hazy air, stratiford cloud, inversions and so on. Today the feel is so Atlantic. Cumulus clouds for the first time in ages, a higher cloud base, a breeze, and a lack of pollution which is so noticeable.

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Feeling very spring like on the south coast, 10c , light breeze, outside tables full along the sea front and the rooks gathering high in the trees, ready for nesting...the Atlantic doors are open and so are the doors for the next season....down here at least.  

which part of the south coast are you on  its doesnt feel spring liike here this pm at 7degress in the rain and stiff breeze few sigms of spring around here at the moment. 

which part of the south coast are you on  its doesnt feel spring liike here this pm at 7degress in the rain and stiff breeze few sigms of spring around here at the moment. 

Hi actually at Fratton park now!  Where the pitch looks like it's early may! But earlier sat out overlooking the Isle of Wight. Beautiful day. Dry but obviously cool under the old stands of this ground. 

indeed things are far less advanced than last year and previous 2 years here after this cold frosty  two weeks no early daffodils this year

Same in Lymington as in Eastbourne- behind the last few years and well over a month behind the false spring of last year that has been referenced as unique due to the record breaking two month spell of November and December. Last year the daffodils were up everywhere here and in one spot flowering in the second half of November. This particular clump is on a well-drained sunny aspect, near constant traffic, in a town so not representative of general flowering times but good as a comparator; it has bloomed early most years but the yellow buds are only just fattening now and February is breathing at the door. It's still winter in the south.

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I've set the heating thermostat at 20 C at dawnbreak, it clicked itself off mid-morning and hadn't come back on since then. Now the solar energy from the afternoon sun shining into my west-facing hobby room and the oven left on to cook jacket potatoes is enough to easily bring my room to a toasty 25 C currently. It does feel lush and warm in here.

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Remarkably few signs of spring anywhere in the South East at the moment. I was in Oxford yesterday at the same spot I remember walking in 1998 at the exact same time of year surrounded by flowering daffodils. Yesterday, scarcely even many shoots, and few crocuses.

Next week will be a shock to the system. I've long had an informal rule on when spring starts, which is 3 days in a row with sunshine, light winds and max temps of 13C or more (has to be all 3 otherwise it's just a crisp winter spell or an ultra mild Atlantic incursion). We just get that in parts of England in the next 7 days.

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