It is time
And about time too.

I took a little trip down Davis Lane and saw that at last the Blackthorn blossom was out.

Nearly April. What is happening to the flowers this year?

I have seen it blooming in February other years.

Foretelling the setting in of a cold spell.

The Blackthorn Winter as some old country folk used to call it; because it always seemed to bring with it 

a little frost and cold winds to remind us that it is not spring yet.

This time last year the Bullace tree sucker, that I rescued from my G.G.G. Grandmothers garden; (Mary's garden as it is marked on the Tickenham Tithe Map) on the hill just below Cadbury Camp. The family having moved over from Portbury and taken a 99 year lease from Clevedon Court in 1814. It had flowered and was way past its best.
This year the leaf buds are just beginning to show. Well over a month behind last years timing. Is it because the milder winters are resulting in later springs? 

Mainly I think because the leaves stayed on the trees for longer and it takes a time for the trees to sort themselves back into the time for the sap to start to rise.