March is certainly throwing a serious amount of weather at us, and such a variety too! After last week’s snowfall and overnight frosts, we’d resumed a more normal temperature, and were really enjoying some quite warm balmy days. And then this morning, we were caught totally unawares by a hailstorm as we took our walk a little early to avoid the forecasted thunderstorm!
And a couple of minutes later, the dark cloud had passed over northwards to Brač. I do hope they also enjoyed being pelted with a quick blast of ice! But then the sun reappeared and, feeling slightly damp, we enjoyed the rest of our walk under (mostly) blue skies. Our afternoon storm never materialised, I wonder who got that?
Blue skies and blue gate
The early flowers are pretty, with lots of pink and purple against the fresh green. Didn’t see so many crocuses out today, but plenty of cyclamen hiding away in protected corners. Mostly singles, but this group were perfectly lined up for a family photograph.
Cyclamen in flower
The carpets of anemones are a lovely splash of pink also, fading to white. Here’s some just by the roadside. Notice that many of the larger woody plants are not yet doing much.
Anemonies
And there’s always an exception, isn’t there? The hawthorn is starting to flower on bare branches (with extremely long spikes). The young leaves still have a ways to go to add the green.
Hawthorn branch
Today turned out to be a good day for spotting flowers – the first freesia I’ve seen in flower. I had no idea these grew wild here, and at this time of year! The scent is heavenly, I wish I could get a scratch and sniff option for the blog!
Wild freesia
Besides the plants, I’m still looking closely at any mosses and lichens I find, especially in the wet, when the colours are brighter. Here’s a pink lichen I couldn’t resist photographing today, showing very distinctive texture on the wet rock surface. Now isn’t that beautiful!
Pink lichen
We also had a good day spotting wildlife – is it the Spring, or simply the wet day brings them out, I wonder? Here’s a very handsome green toad, that we usually only see at night-time. Here he was out and about in full daylight, presumably enjoying the wet.
European Green Toad (Bufo viridis)
A wee lizard waiting for the sun to reappear and heat him up. Looks like a Dalmatian Wall lizard, which comes in a variety of colours, all with a green strip down the back. This is probably a young guy.
Dalmatian wall lizard (Podarcis melisellensis)
Down by the beach, we nearly trod on a small crab just sitting on the path. He’d better take care, for he’s just the right size for the gulls to make a tasty meal of him!
Small crab
The weather forecast calls for rain all week now, so look out for a blog about fish next!
Go Hvar 
So lovely!
You’re quite an inspiration.
Glad you enjoyed our walk in the hail! I find our island very inspirational!
It’s so lovely to see cyclamen growing wild. We don’t see that here. I remember seeing them in the woods when we walked around Plitvice lakes ina visit to Croatia, along with other wild flowers.
It’s such a pretty sight to see so many of them tucked away under the trees. It’s a gorgeous splash of bright pink!