I have not had a lot of time for contemplation of the garden this week. There is the still-slow progress towards spring, bringing some cheer and Highway Robin has me fully trained now, he’s robbin’ me of all the birdseed. So my #SixOnSaturday is a medley of bits and pieces.

I’ll start with that lovely robin, who not only feeds from my hand, but come and sings by my shoulder if the feeders are not full (“where’s the food, get the food, gimme more”). Its hard not to imagine that this is a stern look, for failing to feed him — I was, in fact, trying to clear some of the flower beds.

Last week, I was excited to note that my favourite hellebore was about to flower. Here it is, I love the rich purple shades.

Greenhouse time is slowly increasing for me, partly as I’ve been a bit below-par and it’s easy garden ‘work’ (anyone else have a seemingly endless mild cough and general fatigue?), partly because it almost feels a bit warmish in there some days. I’ve overwintered my lemon tree successfully. There will be lemons for spring G-n-T’s.

I’m glad I wintered a few little chard plants. Garden ones have been heavily frosted. I’m hoping these will grow away soon, as there’s more daylight hitting the greenhouse, and we’ll have fresh spring greens.

I’ve had a strawberry bed for some years in a corner of my veg patch. The yield was a little disappointing in summer 2022. Perhaps it is time to refresh. Here are some runners that I’m hoping will get a head start, to be planted out in a few weeks time to form a new bed. I might treat myself to a few garden-centre plants as well, to give the season a boost.

The December cold spell must be responsible for a slow snowdrop season here. The weather has been mild for pretty much all of 2023 so far, yet the snowdrops are STILL going strong. These ones have a cute little ‘green bridge’ pattern on the inner petals when fully in flower, the details are a delight. Are we now at peak flowering? Time will tell.

I hope you enjoyed my #SixonSaturday. We are starting to get the sixes going on Mastodon (other instances in the Fediverse are available), but we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. Al you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m now mostly on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot.