Waiting for the warmth to return

Today, 1 March, is St David's Day - the patron saint of Wales. Today, people of the Welsh persuasion around the world (and in Wales) will proudly wear the Daffodil - the national flower - in their lapels.

Wait a moment - daffodils? Now? But in Warsaw? It will be an age before flowers start appearing through the soil (well, six weeks at least - maybe crocuses and snow-drops a bit earlier). Spring is still astronomically three weeks away, but the real beginning - when that marvellous miracle of rebirth happens all at once - is not due until the second half of April. Another seven or eight weeks of yearning... (meanwhile London's lawns have been graced with early bulb flowers since  early February - there's no shortage of daffodils for the Welsh).

The is przednówek or przedwiośnie, the latter half of winter, which drags on and on.

Ogród Saski, awash with meltwater.

There's overnight snow forecast, which will have melted by the late morning, maximum temperatures +4C, then falling again and some more snow that will have melted by Sunday lunchtime. And no prospect of improvement in the coming days. Nor much chance of strong frosts and heaps of powdery snow now. Sunshine is being meanly rationed by the weather gods... After over four months of waiting for the sun, the last few weeks are the hardest.

Heaps of dirty ice line the pavement, ul. Puławska.

Yesterday, I decided I'd had enough of my big M65 Parka and furry lumberjack hat, so in an attempt to to bring on spring with a change of outwear, I went out in a (lined) trenchcoat and trilby hat - big mistake. The bitter wind nearly had my hat off several times, and my ears were permanently cold. The burden of winter wear - furry hat, warm scarf, bulky parka with hood, gloves and Biedronka boots (warm, hard-wearing but more suitable to building site than office) - is beginning to lie heavy on my shoulders.

O spring! How I long for thee!

This time last year:
Remembering Poland's 'Accursed Soldiers'

Two years ago:
Getting the balance right between work and play

This time four years ago:
Sublime Jeziorki sunset

This time five years ago:
Sunrise getting earlier