I knew that we had a few rabbits living along our bottom hedge but

I knew that we had a few rabbits living along our bottom hedge, but from the footprints it looked as though the place had been over-run by an army of them. That is one of the advantages of a good snowfall: it reveals the extent of nocturnal activity, which normally goes unnoticed.By midday the sun was striking hot, but the temperature was still below freezing, and the air had a positively Alpine feel. As always, our north- facing slopes fetched out the tobogganers from the village, and nightfall brought on another cracking frost. By morning - again brilliant - many precocious plants were looking decidedly sick.

Whether or not wild garlic is capable of feeling sorry for itself, I would not like to say. I can only report that all those green spears, as they poked through the crusted snow, had taken on a slightly martyred appearance.Two days later, we were back to normal. The snowman built by the tobogganers, originally with a figure which bore a striking resemblance to that of Norman Lamont, had dwindled to an insignificant pale blob on the horizon The fields were green again. Rain was falling.Is that it? Are two days of winter going to be our ration? Or will the 16-year lobby yet be proved right?.

There was a slightly glum air about the little sweet pea plants as they gazed out of the kitchen window at the snow piling up on the ledge. I had been meaning to get them down to the cold frame to start hardening them off. They get drawn and over-fragile if they stay inside too long But I think I'll wait until the snow has gone. Over optimistic perhaps, with this warning so recent, to go on sowing seed, but I am. This week I started off the yellow daisy, Bidens `Golden Goddess' (Thompson & Morgan £1.99).

This is a winner in pots as it flowers from midsummer right the way through to the first frosts. The plants bulk up well, sometimes reaching two feet wide and high and they have very fine ferny foliage starred with the small daisy flowers. I first saw it, as I have seen so many things for the first time, at Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys, where the head gardener, Jimmy Hancock, used it in pots with the rich velvety fuchsia `Gartenmeister Bonstedt'. I want it, not in pots, but to fill in between the box cones and balls that march along a narrow border by the drive. The first flush of colour there, provided by the aconites, is over and a satisying amount of their seed is germinating around the original clumps Then there will be wallflowers and after that the bidens. Eventually, I hope the box bushes will join hands and the ground between will not need filling..