Rainfall: 131.3mm

Temp High: 13^oC on 18th

Temp Low: -8^oC on 12th

Temp Average: 1.8^oC

The snow has gone from our garden and we could finally do some tidying up. We've had some extremely mild and stormy days this week - it actually reached 13^oC yesterday. It was a lot colder today, but the sun was shining and it was nice being outside.

I moved some big stones and found this surprise snail. It's a surprise because it was really distinctive and easy to identify as Vitrinobrachium breve. The black colour, huge mantle and vestigial shell mean that the ID was quite easy compared to some of the other snails I've attempted. The species is quite local to this area.

Here's another photo of a flock of bramblings in our hawthorn. There are around 40 I think (it's a phone photo through a window so it isn't very clear).

We've has a series of storm lows passing through and the weather has been extremely mild, hitting 9^oC today. The pond has melted and the kingfisher is back. I saw him catch a decent sized fish earlier this week and he has been coming regularly since.

The brambling numbers have been gradually increasing. Here's a photo of some of them on our feeding table.

I saw an unusual bird in the distance this morning. I couldn't identify it until I opened the window and heard it gobbling. It is a turkey that has obviously escaped from someones garden. Sadly, I can't put this down as a new bird species as we don't have wild turkeys here.

There have been some hard frosts overnight. Our car had a full head of ice hair this morning.

We went for a run up to the Sankenbachsee to make sure the paths are all open for Christine's guided walk next week.

We spotted these fruiting bodies on a lichen which we think is Brown Beret Lichen, Baeomyces rufus.

I've now installed our weather station at the top of the garden. I'll eventually update the website to show the data somewhere.

We have a different microclimate here, being in the valley, so local weather forecasts and temperature predictions are rarely correct. This will hopefully give us the information to ensure that sensitive plants don't get hit by frosts.