We are having sleepless nights at the moment

The nights are far from plain sailing, with the lowest temperatures arriving in the morning. Yesterday evening, as early as 8 pm, temperatures began to drop sharply, dipping below freezing from midnight and continuing to fall until 1 am. The worry was that we had experienced rain and snow the day before, leaving the downy buds soaked with water. The danger was that these buds might freeze, jeopardising the crop. From 1 am, the sky began to cloud over and temperatures rose back up to around 0°C, thereby saving the early buds from frost. It often hangs by a thread: a shift in wind direction, a few clouds... whereas had the sky stayed completely clear, the damage would certainly have been significant. We are taking it one step at a time, but roll on early May, so that these frost episodes are firmly behind us. Photo sent by Loïc Pasquet of Liber Pater last night during our late-night conversations.