Nipped in the Bud

Just as some optimistic trees and bushes were tentatively opening a few flower buds...

the prolonged autumn was pushed off the mountain by winter's first snows. 

Not much of it fell on my gardens - the Oberon Plateau snagged most of the snow - but the apple trees that flowered in May are looking a bit sorry now, and the brassicas that were burgeoning have suddenly hunkered down.  They enjoy the cold, for sure, even if only for the relief it brings from the constant assaults by cabbage moth caterpillars, but there is something different in their colour and demeanour, now that the first Antarctic blast has passed through.

The colour did not all disappear when the blossoms and leaves fell - in some ways the view from the kitchen window is brighter than ever.

But the jonquils are already offering an early promise of spring to come....