My poor garden has been brutalised by the severe sub-zero temperatures and snow this winter and as I love my garden, it breaks my heart to see the plants that I have carefully chosen and nurtured looking so woeful. I have been looking out of the window for weeks now not daring to survey the damage but this afternoon I braved the wind and spent 30 minutes in my oasis. For some of my plants it is clearly the end of the road and I will need to replace them in the Spring. I will miss the fragrant jasmine which has been stripped of its foliage and any trace of blossom and it saddens me to see it hang so forlornly over its support frame. I can’t bear to dig it out just yet…….there’s always a slim chance that it will sprout again from the roots.

“Let the flower you hold in your hand be your world for that moment”

Likewise the clematis look pathetic but again I will leave them in situ and see what happens. The good news however is that it looks like my wonderful orange poppies, after which this blog is named, have survived and feathery green shoots are already poking through. I want to tell them to go back under the soil until March but I guess they wouldn’t listen. Let’s see what happens and being positive it will at least give me an opportunity to rejuvenate my garden and perhaps add some more interesting specimens.

“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself” (Zen saying)

“Flowers feed the soul” (Mohammed)

“Tranquillity is the garden in which your soul can grow”