New Shoots

I watched apprehensively in early December when the gardeners blew all the fallen leaves into distinct piles along the boundary wall in front of the house, noticing that one pile coincided with the location of my illegally planted daffodils. However I thought the men would be back more or less immediately to gather up the piles without harming any emergent daffodil leaves, but so far there has been no sight or sound of them and today I could see some emergent shoots poking through the leaves.
Knowing what damage the men can do with rakes, I took matters into my own hands this morning and rescued the growing daffies from under their watery tomb of sodden decomposing leaves.

Here they are, looking a bit anaemic, but I know that they will soon recover to give me some spring cheer next month. Meanwhile the leaf mountain awaits........