Post 6/2022 Saturday 5 February . . . The weather this week brought out the best in meteorologists. “Stay home,” they said, assuring viewers that a big storm, lasting two days, was indeed on its way. We ventured out for a short walk during the storm on Wednesday, day 1. On Thursday we stayed in. On Friday we did several shorter walks. Today friends joined us for a longer walk. Cold, yet warmly bundled. Fresh, for sure.

Oh, how I love a good start to the year. It gives elevated status to hot drinks, by which I mean nodding smiles of deeper gratitude to the steam that rises from one’s cup of coffee or tea.

Soon we’ll be getting a whiff of spring. Already in mid-January, friends Stanley and Marlene in Washington state noted that their snowdrops and hellebores were blooming. Our bare ground, covered with a thick blanket of snow, will keep snowdrops here in hibernation a little longer.

Then suddenly, ever so suddenly, spring will commence in all its official fulness on Sunday, March 20. Enjoy/endure the now, even as one anticipates developments hence.

Midweek on the Greencroft campus

The Greencroft Grounds Crew was busy clearing sidewalks, driveways and plowing streets in this first major storm of the year. Thank you!

Five years ago

It was March 2017 when we posed for this photo in a field of daffodils near Carbis Bay, Cornwall UK. We had just finished helping to pick bunches of flowers for Mothering Sunday at church. Cornwall “grows 75% of the country’s daffodils and harvests an estimated 80% of the daffodils that are sold as a cut flower, globally,” according to an October 2020 report by Cornwall and the Daffodil Industry.

Further, “It is estimated that Cornwall harvests in the region of 900 million daffodil stems annually along with 15,000 tonnes of bulbs.”

Last year there was a shortage of workers to harvest the crop; usually that means more than 2700 seasonal daffodil pickers. “Mechanisation is not an option so the industry is 100% reliant on manual labour,” the paper noted.

Prospects for this year appear to be brighter in that the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme allows for more foreign workers on British fruit, veg and flower farms.

More memories from five years ago

I’ve been going through old photos as we anticipate being able to safely return to Cornwall later this month. That year, 2017, friends Steve and Marilyn Bowden took us on a day trip to the National Trust Lydford Gorge, near Tavistock in County Devon. Almost like it was just yesterday.

Saturday walk

Winter/spring in Cornwall

You are cordially invited to follow our anticipated beings and doings in Cornwall via this blog. I’m hoping to see a bit of sea fog, hail maybe, but no snow, and rain at night. Also, braced for winds. The forecast on Thursday in Cornwall stated, “Today’s Met Office weather suggests we’re in for a cold and blustery day, with sunny spells and showers.” I’ll be packing a tube of sunscreen. Never hurts to be prepared.

-John