Can clouds be lonely?

Wordsworth certainly thought so, and left us the legacy. We are lucky to have our very own host, descendants of the 100 Tenby daffodils I bought when we moved here over 20 years ago. They loved the damp cool soil under the trees in the "orchard" and each bulb increased gradually to a large clump. As an added bonus the seeds germinated freely, the first year or two being almost indistinguishable from grass, and taking 4 to 5 years before becoming large enough to flower.

5 years ago we sadly had to move them, so now they are scattered round the garden. The ones that thrive best, those in the picture, were planted under three ancient apple trees. They in turn are fringed with a generous growth of new plants from seed.

My mother - who would have been 92 today - would have loved to see them; she delighted in the spring flowers after the dark cold days of winter. My grandfather, more pragmatic, was less enthusiastic. "We'll get no decent weather until they are over" he said every year. More often than not he was right, as the warm days which had encouraged them into bloom were succeeded by cold days with an easterly wind - so that the golden blooms remained fully out, becoming ever more battered as the days wore on, until one day the warm weather was back and the daffodils were finally able to fade away. Hopefully this year will be the exception to grandad's rule!