An unwanted garden visitor . Chionodoxa and Lots of Seed Sowing

Nothing much has changed in the garden since my last post despite the weather warming up a little.  A few more miniature daffodils have opened but still no sign of the proper ones - they are still tightly in bud and refuse to open.

 But, there is one glimmer of new life

The Chionodoxa have decided to flower I love this colour blue.  The Crocus are still blooming away

I have never known them flower for this long, even the Snowdrops are still flowering, although I didn't bother to take a picture of them as they are old hat now.

The Primmys are still going strong too.  I am just grateful for anything showing a bit of colour at the moment.

I have also been sowing flower seed in the greenhouse Marigolds, Cornflowers and wild flowers etc. really looking forward to filling the flower beds and seeing the results - praying for a good summer. One sad thing is that the Lavender bushes don't seem to have survived the prolonged cold and snow. 

As you can see they are in a sorry state - I think I will have to replace them if they don't pick up - must have Lavender in the garden, no matter what.

Nature Notes 

We had an unwanted visitor to the garden this morning.  A Heron.  Unwanted,  because we have a fish pond, and if allowed he would eat the lot of them.  He did look rather majestic though surveying the kingdom from the top of a tree at the end of the garden.

I opened the back door to shoo him off and he gracefully glided away. 

Just to be on the safe side I have put the net back over the pond.  He was spotted in the village yesterday as well, he must be hungry and looking for food in all the garden ponds.  NOT IN MY POND YOU DON'T.

Paul, the farmer, has let his cows out into the back field behind our house - I love to see animals in the fields again and the first day he lets them out they are so excited running and kicking their legs out - so glad to be out of their winter quarters.

Nostalgia Corner

Here are one or two more photos that I found in last weeks shortlived spring clean (I haven't done anything since - slapped wrists) I have been too busy outdoors.

Another picture of my beloved goats enjoying the sunshine in the field full of buttercups - I don't know where all the buttercups went because these days there isn't a single one - weird that.

And this is me, with my knobbly knees, having a word with Boy my male goat, who got smellier and stinkier the nearer my girls came into season.  Unfortunately he came into milk which sometimes happens with male goats, there is a word for it which I can't bring to mind at the moment.  The vet was baffled, and said he had never heard of it happening before and didn't know what to do about it.  I had to milk him in the end to relieve the pressure that was building up - oh dear, what a job.  Happy days!

A Meal to Make

Smoked Haddock Chowder with crispy bacon

A Book to Read

The Finest Type of English Womanhood

It is 1946, and seventeen-year-old Laura Trelling is stagnating in her dilapidated Sussex home, while her eccentric parents slip further into isolation.  A chance encounter with Paul Lovell offers her the opportunity to alter the course of her destiny - and embark on a new life in South Africa.

Many miles north, sixteen-year-old Gay Gibson is desperate to escape Birkenhead.  When the girls paths cross is Johannesburg, Laura is exposed to Gay's wild life of parties and inappropriate liaisons.  Each in her own world, but thrown together, the girls find their lives inextricably entangled, with fatal consequences.

So that was my week, the cold north-easterly wind dropped and the temperature rose just a little, enough to entice me out of doors and tempt the flowers into bloom, we still haven't had any rain yet, but the frogs are still going bananas in the pond laying masses of frogspawn - perhaps they know something we don't!

Have a great weekend everyone - spring it is a-comin'