Spring is at last springing

For about a month, since the snow has well and truly gone and we have stopped skiing, I have been looking forward to Spring. It all looked very promising in March and we had a beautiful three weeks. When the sun was shining it was glorious, I planted up the pots on our balcony, although we were reminded summer was not quite with us as the evenings got quite chilly.

At the same time, the UK had an unusually warm March, photos of rose wine and Pimms being drunk outside London pubs started to appear on Facebook. I was also being told by friends and family that the blossom had started to come out, and the daffodils were sprouting. It was a very different story here. Although daytime temperatures were warm, the grass was still brown from all the snow, trees were still bare and there were no signs of any imminent daffodils. Hopefully, I thought we would only be a week or so behind the UK and the daffs would pop through in time for Easter... but sadly my hopes were shattered and the weather took a turn for the worse as the bank holiday weekend approached.

For Easter we took our first road trip to Dubrovnik, which is about 5 hours from Sarajevo (only 280km but the roads are slow). The moment we got out of the Sarajevo area and approached Mostar it was like we had entered a different country. The grass was green, the blossom was blossoming and the spring flowers had sprung and this was the case all the way to Dubrovnik. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed it and was totally taken back by lush green fields full of lambs.

Following a wet (and quite cold, yet very enjoyable) weekend in Dubrovnik we found ourselves back on the road to Sarajevo. About 20km outside the city we stumbled across an inch of snow which took us somewhat by surprise, under normal circumstances I am delighted to see the snow, but having had nearly 2m on the ground for most of January, February and March I was somewhat ‘over-it’. Luckily, this was very localised as by the time we had reached the city, it had all gone, however the temperature had dropped quite considerably.

Sarajevo remained the city which spring forgot. The grass was still brown, no blossom had appeared and there were still absolutely no signs of any daffodils, the winter clothes came back out again and it started to rain.

Last weekend we returned to the UK and as with Dubrovnik, I was delighted to be greeted by spring (and of course more rain). The trees were starting to get leaves and were in the bright green stage, the daffodils were almost over and the blossom was in full bloom.

It was a fleeting visit and we returned to Sarajevo yesterday. Much to my delight we have been greeted with Spring. It is considerably warmer, the grass is now green, trees are sprouting leaves, the blossom is in bloom and I have even seen a couple of daffodils. I am almost tempted to re-pack the winter clothes, although this could be tempting fate as I have heard that it is not that unusual to have snow here in May...