Leap year, February 29th, every four years, we know you well. This day always brings back memories of my youth aged 17 and at the time living in a hostel where we girls had the brilliant idea of sending the sexiest, in a woolly jumper and slippers kind of way, boy many many valentines. You should have seen him, he was tickled pink and proceeded to gather them all together and read them out to us in the evening.   But this game was a long game and on the 29th we all proposed to him, every time we saw him.  I remember uttering the immortal words ‘Gareth, will you marry me and I’ll make you Marmite sandwiches every day!’ as I trundled through the corridor from the kitchen to my room with my supper. I was with another girl, we burst into laughter and he, well he was not happy.  We apologised the next day and eventually he did manage to see the funny side of it.

Now you may not be in the lucky position or even want to propose to a boy, but I think having an extra day appear on the calendar can only be a good thing and as such should be grasped with gusto. The perfect day to explore new ideas or challenges or just to have an extra half an hours walk in the fresh spring air which is thrusting its fresh shoots into winters gloom.

These have been flowering all winter.

And this has just started to flower.

The Fig tree is bursting into bud.

As is the Ceanothus.

Experimentation with the Geraniums. I normally pull them up as they are very tender plants, or so I thought.  This year I left one in a pot to see what would happen through the winter here in London. I think we have had a couple of frosts, but that is all and it has survived. I think I will leave them in this year and see what happens.  It will be interesting to see how it flowers being on a more mature plant, it either needs cutting back to flower on new growth and so therefore not flower well or will be magnificent.  Time will tell.