It's Groundhog Day!

I think we managed a top temperature of 3 degrees yesterday and Diana and I found it hard to get going, but we pushed on with some more pruning in the orchard. The first to go under the knife was the beauty bush Kolkwitzia amabilis which had become a tangle of peeling stems, it was quite a battle to cut out the oldest and extract them from the others, Diana says it will be worth seeing in the spring when its blossom lives up to its common name. How eager I am to see all these dead twigs turn into something identifiable! A couple of crab apples were given a trim next, fairly routine stuff really, just cutting the vigorous new growth back by about two thirds, making a slanting cut away from the the chosen out-ward facing bud so that the water drips away from the growth point protecting it from rot. By then Di was getting cold and as she says there is still plenty of time to attend to the other trees so we retired indoors for an early lunch, that enabled me to sneak off early and get some more homework done, no rest for the wicked! Today is Candlemas day, in Christianity this signifies the presentation of Jesus at the temple, in British folklore it was the day that all Christmas decorations were traditionally removed from the house (Imagine coping with the tree that long!), and it is used as a weather prediction day, what else! We are now half way between the solstice and the equinox also. In the good old US of A it is groundhog day which pretty much amounts to the same thing, if said critter pokes his nose out of his burrow, doesn't like the look of the weather and goes back in watch out!
If Candlemas day is clear and bright
winter will have another bite.
If Candlemas day brings cloud and rain

winter is gone and will not come again.