Groundhog Day

The weather on February 2nd, Groundhog Day or Candlemas, is supposed to give an indicator as to how long winter will last; if sunny, winter will return; if gloomy it will be over soon. Well, this year was gloomy but with enough sun to cast shadows at the critical time of 11am. Even without that it's easy to see that the current cold snap is set to continue for a while - last week we had heavy, but brief, snow on Thursday and since then clear cold frosty weather.
I have some snowdrops struggling to come out though - to say how early the buds were showing, the flowers are taking a long while to appear.

 Inside, I have tomatoes, cauliflowers and winter salad leaves set in propagators, and herbs on the windowsill - basil (left) and parsley.