FEBRUARY

The long winter of 2010 has been not only one of the coldest we have experienced for many years but it has also been depressingly dull.  Despite February being the shortest month of the year we all welcome its arrival, the month of hope when green shoots and catkins at last begin to appear. Two feast days are celebrated during February, Candlemas Day February 2^nd and Saint Valentines Day February 14^th.  

 There are also many country verses associated with the month of February predicting the weather we may expect during the rest of the year – a kind of folklore. I quote,

‘February fill dyke, be it black or white”

 “If Candlemas Day be bright and fair

                                                                           We will have two winters in one year

                                                                   But if Candlemas Day be grey and black

                                                                               ”It will carry winter out on its back”

The Snowdrop is the first flower of the New Year usually flowering at the beginning of February.  It bears several names, Candlemas Bells or flower of Candlemas, Fair Maids of February, Eve’s Tears and the flower of Hope and Purity. Together with wild violets they are the first flowers to carpet the woodland and brighten up yet another grey winter’s day.  On February 11^th our U3A Garden Group visited Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge, to see the snowdrops.  Due to extremely low temperatures and several hard frosts since the beginning of the new year the trip was postponed to a later date as snowdrops find it difficult to pierce hard terrain.  As a result the trip proved more interesting as other winter wonders were on view, including aconites, hellebores, hamamelis (Chinese Witch Hazel) together with the colourful barks of the cornus bushes enhanced by the winter sunshine.  Our U3A Churches Group, who, over the years have visited many of our famed East Anglian Churches, must have noted that the churchyard, “a mini- nature reserve”, is a natural home to the snowdrop, left happily undisturbed to multiply.  It was during my travels researching local churches that I first fell in love with “The Snowdrop”, the flower that signals the onset of spring.

February is a month of transition, and, despite the continuing cold and dismal weather, spring will soon arrive bringing with it a riot of colour, so many flowers just waiting in the wings ready to burst into bloom, and these 2 little lambs are here to prove it!

 Kate Harrison   February 2010

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