Survivors

The only clump of snowdrops that made it (almost) unharmed through the recent storms.   Most have had their petals stripped off by repeated impact with the ground or other plants.  It's the same for cyclamen, crocus and an early daffodil that were also in flower a weeks ago.   this group are quite close to both the house and the fence and somewhat sheltered by a shrub upwind of them but the biggest factor in their survival is that these are the latest one's to flower and were less developed when the storms came.   It's a long known, long grown form of the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, which has two distinct features.  The flowers have green markings on the outer petals as well as the inner ones and the spathes are exceptionally long, sticking up above the flower a bit like donkey's ears!

I spent most of the day at work again, another busy day.   Good business for the railway.    Clara arrived safely, the rail replacement bus didn't delay her arrival as her original connection had a 90 minute wait in Birmingham.  She was able to make her connection with the bus in Shrewsbury by catching an earlier train from Birmingham, thus avoiding another 90 minute wait in Shrewsbury and arriving here on time.   Katie has had her MRI at last, the thinking now is that the problem may be postural but with stronger pain killers she is a much happier Katie :-)