A windy start

Well the 1st of February got off to a blustery start thanks to Storm Henry. The gale force winds meant that Jen could not continue with her hedge cutting regime around the campus as all the cuttings would have blown all over the place. So she could be found in the border on South drive, edging the grass from the Acre to the far end of the steps opposite Bronte.
Carl and Sam could be found in the borders at the refectory/student hub, tidying the shrubs up and weeding. They had to keep an eye on their buckets, otherwise these could have blown away taking their weeds with them!
I was working my way along the bottom of the Acre edging the grass to neaten up the path. This involved a half moon implement, a bucket, and sore knees. It did get my fingers after awhile, pulling up the overgrown grass from between the paving slabs, but it was worth it for the end result. You can see from this image that the grass had crept over the path quite away, so with it being a main thoroughfare for people, it really needed tidying up.

I'd made a start on the side below and already you can see a difference.

 

It's surprising just how much of a difference it can make to edge a pathway like this. It looks a lot tidier and now shouldn't need doing for another year.
Once I'd finished this, Carl told me about some Galanthus nivalis (snowdrops) that were starting to come out at the bottom of the rockery. So if you get the opportunity you really must see them.

At the top end of Fairfax there is a bed of Erica carnea (heathers) that are starting to bloom. So these are definitely worth seeing too for their colour at this time of the year.

(Photos taken by myself on 1st February 2016)