After the dullest February ever in Wales, since Met Office records began, and a wet dull winter, March began in the same vein.

Fortunately, early lambing of just a few of our ewes this year lifted our spirits, before March 4th dawned with cloud-free skies for the first time in weeks, and at last we enjoyed unbroken sunshine all day. Below is the moment the nearly completely blind ewe, Jetfire, who was attacked by a raven or crow a couple of weeks ago, gave birth to Little Meg.

All six honey bee colonies were active and bringing in pollen after the longest winter of inactivity since we started ‘keeping’ them. They began foraging at 7.45 am and were still active 8 hours later, making the most of a day when temperatures rose to about 14 degrees C, with light South Easterly winds.

Bumble bees emerged in numbers, too, and more daffodils began to open around the garden, as well as Camellias.

It finally felt like spring! As daffodils began to open in the upper hay meadow, and we saw a few early butterflies on the wing.

Such moments were very fleeting through the early part of the month, but provided just enough moments to let me take a few more photos, as spring took a firmer grip on the garden.

 

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We had another group of gardeners visit on a grey, dank day, but they still all seemed to enjoy the garden, even with its slippery paths after such a prolonged period without more than a couple of dry days at any one time.

The month progressed with daily sheep chores, more grey skies, and mostly temperatures below 10 degrees C, however occasional busts of sunshine kept flowers emerging.

An annual audit of seedling daffodils in the upper hay meadow ran to about 770, on March 17th, which was nearly double the number last year. I expect numbers, and interesting seedling variants to increase exponentially from now on.

After nearly 2 weeks of keeping the lambs in at night, a more extended period of dry weather began on March 16th, and we could allow them to stay out. I was also able to replenish our bedding stocks from the dead Molinia leaves in our lower hay meadow. All the ewes have been stars this year, as have their lambs, and Jetfire is adapting remarkably well to finding her way around by up-tuning her hearing.

A clear spell overnight produced a single frost to minus 2 degrees C, and a couple of days of hail, but no snow. All challenging as I continue with my efforts at mapping out and measuring all the daffodils in the malus copse collection.

This recording includes me trying to measure the flowers and photograph them as they age – many daffodils’ appearance changes dramatically as the flower colour of the trumpet and perianth (petals) change, and the standard cultivar images rarely illustrate this, or indeed the different foliage form.

During this period, rising at around 5.45am and sitting outside for half an hour, as the Canada geese, flew overhead, the sun rose, wagtails preened in the yard, and the dawn chorus became more diverse,,made for some very special moments.

Our next garden open weekend came at the end of this spell, and most visitors enjoyed benign weather, and the diverse range of early daffodils I was able to pick to illustrate that they’re not all bold yellow flowers! And we had the unusual request from Alex of Siop Botanica in Lampeter, to bring along one of his Frizzled Bantam cockerels for a photoshoot amongst the flowers.

By the end of the month, the lambs had grown well, and we’d almost reached the point where we return them with their mums to the rest of the flock. All of the lambs are inquisitive and friendly this year, which bodes well for later on.The low temperatures mean that grass is still growing very slowly, so we’re needing to keep offering hay.

Peak daffodil time for the earlier cultivars, came shortly afterwards, around the end of the month. There are many more to open, but the earliest are already fading, after what has been a stunning year for flower numbers.

The weather data for the month illustrates how the month began to improve halfway through, with increased amounts of sunshine, and less rainfall. The Met Office data for the month, which includes temperature readings suggests it’s the fourth warmest March “since records began” to quote their often used phrase – meaning their paper records since the mid-1800’s, not the much longer data on long term climate available from other scientifically accepted data sources.  The PV reading of 288 KWH places March 2026 above the mean levels, though still way down on the exceptionally sunny recent Marches of 2025, 2022, and 2020. The rainfall was moderate, but we still enjoyed 13 dry days, with only 2 light frosts. It’s this lack of cold nights which probably most influenced the average high daily (i.e. 24 hour period) temperature for the month, rather than many warm days.

Looking at my records below, with maximum and minimum readings highlighted, shows just how variable the weather can be here in March.

2014: 86 mm, 13 dry days, PV – 348 KWH

2015: 92 mm, 15 dry days, PV – 297 KWH

2016: 123mm, 16 dry days, PV – 319 KWH

2017: 223 mm, 8 dry days, PV – 266 KWH

2018: 196 mm,  7 dry days, PV – 257 KWH

2019: 241 mm, 9 dry days, PV – 273 KWH

2020: 127 mm, 12 dry days, PV – 362 KWH

2021: 98 mm, 15 dry days, PV – 289 KWH

2022: 65 mm, 20 dry days, PV – 367 KWH

2023: 331.6 mm, 4 dry days, PV – 187 KWH

2024: 217.6 mm, 5 dry days. 3 days light frost, PV – 248.49 KWH

2025: 36.5 mm, 25 dry days, PV – 388.6 KWH

2026: 150.6 mm, 13 dry days 2 frosts to minus 2 only, PV – 288 KWH