Wind, rain, floods

You might have seen on the news that there has been quite some dramatic weather here in the last week. We're on the northern edge of the worst-hit area, which extends southwards and across the north of Spain. Luckily things have been fairly easy here, quite wet and windy, but nothing like below us. There are still areas of the Charente without electricity. And there are lots of roads cut by flooding rivers. But we're fine. Our poplars, which seem to have died, have shed lots of kindling in the wind. Part of the big buddleia at the top of the South Forty has broken off; this still needs to be tended to. 

We did have an unexpected freezing night yesterday. Now we  have several days with no rain in the forecast, so we're hoping things will start to dry out a bit. There are primroses starting to bloom in the lawn and narcissus are coming up everywhere. Buds on the camellias and rhododendrons are swelling.  In a dry spell yesterday, Kaye trimmed last year's dead flowers off the hydrangeas, which have new leaf buds showing. It looks like Spring is starting to think about springing.