A golden chorus that sings: It’s spring!
IF daFFodIls herald the coming spring, trumpeting the news from their bright yellow heads, this bunch would create quite a fanfare.
The glorious scene was captured at alnwick Castle in Northumberland yesterday – with gardener Rob Ternent pushing his wheelbarrow through a bumper crop of the flowers.
The 250,000 daffodils were hand-planted in the grounds of the 11th-century castle two decades ago by groundsman George Turner, 53. He is the third generation of his family to work at alnwick, which was used as the set of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
The flowers are carefully tended to throughout the year and bloom into a magnificent yellow carpet when spring rolls around.
The scene is reminiscent of William Wordsworth’s famous poem in which he marvels at ‘a host of golden daffodils beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze’.
alnwick Castle is home to the 12th duke of Northumberland and is the second largest inhabited castle in England, after Windsor. It is visited by more than 800,000 people every year.
Yesterday Britain was hotter than Barcelona as it basked in sunshine, with temperatures reaching 17C (63F) in aberdeenshire and 16C (61F) in Cornwall.
The balmy weather will continue today and temperatures could reach as high as 19C ( 66F) after a foggy start for southern England.
While it should remain largely sunny on Mother’s day, forecast
ers have warned to expect April showers and widespread frosts next week.
Graham Madge, from the Met Office, said: ‘It has been much warmer than the average of 11C (52F) for this time of year.
‘[Today] we can expect highs of 17C (63F) in southern and eastern parts of the UK. In far western areas it is more likely to be around 10C (50F).
‘At the weekend it will become more cloudy and cool in the North but still warm and bright in the South.
‘April will get off to a relatively chilly start and, once we get into the middle of next week, [it will be] wet and windy.’
Mr Madge said commuters and gardeners should be aware of widespread frosts into Monday after the clocks go forward on Sunday. ‘Temperatures will be dropping sharply,’ he said.
‘I am sure it will come as a shock to many people, especially with the changing of the clocks, and it will be more widespread than we have seen for a while.
‘April frosts are not unknown by any means but there will be quite heavy frosts for the first few days of April, with significant temperature drops overnight, and people might be lulled into a false sense of security.’
The Royal Horticultural Society warned gardeners ‘spring frost is typical but can play havoc with plants’. It said tender flowers should not be left out overnight.