A well-known saying for most of you. In the Dutch language, we say »April does what it wants«, meaning you can expect all kinds of weather. Well, that saying sure came true this week! And not just in Slovenia. But it was pretty extreme here this time. In our area, 20 cm of snow fell and it was also freezing quite a bit for the past 2 nights.

Snow in April is not even that exceptional and in itself not so bad. But the frost is! In Slovenia, a record of over 100 years old has even been broken. This morning it was freezing no less than 20.6 degrees in the Bloke area, about which I wrote just last week! On April 8th!!

Last week it was spring and for a number of days wonderfully warm with a temperature of around 25 degrees. Everything was in bloom. We had been able to eat outside several times and even put on the barbecue together with friends for the first time to officially open the »BBQ season« ;).

But unfortunately, winter had one last major convulsion in store that is disastrous for many plants and trees. For the umpteenth year in a row, we will not have tasty cherries to harvest :(. Many fruit trees will not bear fruit again this year. What a shame!

The last time our cherry tree was full of delicious, juicy cherries was already 5 years ago. Then we had a great harvest. We had so many cherries that I pitted and frozen them. We ate them for months. In recent years, every time it was just in bloom, frost has come over it. And we also have a tree that blooms very early in the season, it’s the first one in our village to bloom actually. Our neighbor, who lives just a little higher, and whose trees bloom just a week or two later, did have fruit on his trees. So as you can see, a few meters to the left or right or up or down can make a lot of difference.

Fortunately, today it looked like spring again with sun, blue skies and about 10 degrees during the day. The snow has almost melted, but unfortunately, the damage has already been done. People sometimes say nature gives and nature takes, and so it is. But it is a shame. Especially for the people who depend on their harvest. Now we have to wait and see just how much the damage will actually be. I have a number of saplings and bushes in the garden. Hopefully, they will survive. There were already some tulips in bloom today so hopefully, the rest will come out as well :).

I really enjoy all that fresh, young green and all the colors of the spring flowers. Fortunately, nature is also strong and, despite this blow, most of the flowers and plants will come out again and will just grow and bloom again like nothing happened. Every day there is something new to see. A beautiful time! I wish everyone a wonderful spring :).