Just been snowing here, that very cold dry sort.
Dogs happy … he loves the snow. Garden is covered - wish I hadn’t left his lead (its 30 metres long) outside last night. Chickens won’t leave their house. My cats are in bed - the two “not my cats” think the cellars cold so they’re sleeping under the spare bed - having somehow got past the dog without waking him.
Now its time to get cold and watch a dog go mental for 90 minutes.
Peach tree was in flower - everything else was only just waking up so should be okay bar no peaches again.
At 1am it was a light dusting and melting - this morning it was ankle deep - its now proper snow -
We have cherry, apricot and pear trees at the moment in full bloom and i expect to lose the lot over the next couple of nights. I’m not that fussed as we rarely get much fruit anyway - birds tend to get there first and the dogs hoover up what finishes on the ground which is far from ideal as the stones get eaten whole, so I spend my life keeping dogs away from windfalls.
If I was serious about wanting fruit from my trees I think I would chose a different method of gardening - for me they are just cheap tall trees. Serious gardening, knowing that late frosts happen most years, I would build walls against the prevailing winds and plant small espalier trees and keep them small. That would also mean I could cover them easily with fleece on especially cold nights. I’d also look at investing in small paraffin heaters to put under important trees. But as I’m a lazy gardener I won’t be doing any of that and will just accept (quite happily) no fruit again this year - maybe half a dozen apricots and the odd cherry before the blackbirds get there. 
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The serious fruit folk around here keep their espaliers short and under retractable “blinds” which can protect from frost/snow and too much sun. They have heaters always ready and if the wind is in a certain direction we can (just about) hear the fans… but it doesn’t disturb us and we know it’s in a good cause.
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That is IT for today… just went out to close the shutters and got beaten down by a horrendous hailstorm. Bring back the snow, all is forgiven… 
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Looks just like mine. Not confidant. Planted 4 new fruit tree last October. All in full bloom and looking wonderful the last week. Probably buggered now, even though we fleeced them.
Ah well,. C’est la vie.
Will keep my fingers crossed your fleeces work! Our trees are too big to cover.
Yes, but bigger trees survive well, even if you lose this years fruit crop. For very young trees, it can be much more serious.
I have a number of trees which appeared to get over last year’s nasty cold snap even though they bore no fruit and manifestly weren’t happy, but which then had to cope with a week of intense heat in the summer and that finished them off, I’m seeing the effects now.
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My little Pieris has been guarding its flowerbuds since last November… a few burst open at the end of last week… and the rest are “holding their breath”.
But, even if we lose this lot of flowers, it should flower during the summer… it normally flowers 2 or 3 times a year.
fingers crossed
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Got another 4-5 inches last night and this morning. Not sure how low the temps got, but much colder than previous night. It’s due to keep going till late afternoon. We have about 200 bulbs in the front, 90% of which are out. They’re covered in snow and won’t survive 
. We cut loads and brought them inside in vases.
that’s the best idea… shame to be a total waste.
excellent - i shall insert it into to madame’s duolingo regime!
Brr… dropped to -4 overnight, currently -2… brrrr
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Since 4am this morning we have had helicopters hovering low over the vines to help with the frost. We had the same lady year for the first time.
This was last year:
As the temperature warms the helicopters are dispersing.
Many vignerons and neighbours have also had bonfires overnight.
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Definitely NOT Spring-like weather…
It’s beyond tedious already.
Woke up around 3am as I could smell smoke. Spent 5 minutes dashing around in the cold in dressing gown and crocs at -3°C checking our buildings before I realised it was the nearby vintners that had set braziers amongst their vines to keep them from freezing.
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I have a dear friend in Canada who used to live in Saskatchewan. He would feel sick at the first sight of snow, knowing it would not leave for at least 6 months (and also that some of his friends and neighbors might die in it).