Sunshine makes the difference

We’re now officially done with winter, and frankly we can’t complain too much about it. The season was relatively mild, there was no snow to shovel, and my wife Jan and I did have that Moroccan holiday at the end of February. But a Daglan winter is generally grey and a bit rainy, and so when the sun made an appearance this morning, things took on a new, spring-like look.

I’ve actually avoided taking photos around the village for a while, simply because of the gloomy weather. But now, in the sunshine, I can show off some of what’s going on.

First to come are the flowers and flowering shrubs — like the forsythia in front of our house:

Another spring for our trusty forsythia.

One of our neighbours has placed these pots with bright yellow flowers beside the main road that runs through Daglan:

Yellow flowers brighten up the side of this house.

Another neighbour regularly puts out several pots of flowers each spring, beside her front door. And here’s her latest collection:

A growing collection of flower pots.

There’s also a bit more activity in terms of business. The shop of Fabrice le Chef has opened for the season, and now has an awning so that patrons can enjoy a coffee or something to eat on the patio beside the shop, regardless of the weather. And there are more merchants taking part in Daglan’s Sunday market now, including the woman who sells plants and flowers, and the sausage vendor. Here’s the market as it looked this morning at around 11:30:

The Sunday market in Daglan’s main square.

Outside the village, the trees and shrubs are bursting into bloom — like this shrub with a cloud of white flowers, growing on the hillside on the left as you leave Daglan for St. Cybranet:

A cloud of white flowers.

The flowers may be out, but as you can see, the trees are still lacking their leaves:

The flowers are out, but not the leaves.

So we still have a ways to go before we’re into the full bloom of spring. But we are getting there, and we’re all pretty pleased about that.