Bursting into Life

I do love this time of year, a few sunny days and everything bursts into life.  Today I noticed that one of my Cedric Morris irises - Benton Deirdre had opened. If you're watching or visiting the Chelsea Flower Show next week look out for them as they are appearing there for the first time in many years.

All the aquilegias have opened this week too, mainly self sown and I tend to leave them where they chose to be unless they're really in the way.

and some more clematis have opened too, the one on the left is called Vino, the one on the right is some kind of montana that was here when I moved in.

Two roses have opened this week, the single chinensis rose 'Mutabilis'

and Abraham Darby.

There's still a lot of blue around as the ceanothus has opened (sadly I think it'll have to come out when it's finished flowering as it's leaning across the path and I have to scramble under it to get past)

But I'll leave you with a photo not taken in my garden but at Arger Fen, a Suffolk Wildlife reserve which I called into after work one day last week.

And I heard a cuckoo, black caps and willow warblers as well as seeing the bluebells :-)

A Walk Through Bluebells

There's something special about a carpet of bluebells.

Fran and I had nipped over to Arger Fen (part of Suffolk Wildlife Trust) and even on a dull day they were beautiful.

The contrast with the new green growth on the trees was soul lifting.

Some were in areas with other wild flowers, Greater Stitchwort and Yellow Archangel here.

We also saw an Early Purple orchid and heard a chiffchaff, cuckoo and a blackcap.  (The blackcap  warning call was identified thanks to the amazingness of twitter).

Close up bluebells always amaze me with their delicacy.

I've now discovered that I can walk from our country park to another Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, Cornard Mere - it has Water Rail, I am rather excited. I'll let you know how I get on.

Bluebells and Buttons (or cuckoos and clocks!)

The bluebells are late this year but definitely worth waiting for.  Earlier this week I was working from home and needed to get out, clear my head, and get away from the computer screen for a while so I took myself off to our local bluebell wood, Arger Fen.  This was what greeted me - a sea of blue!

They are so dainty as they hang their heads.

I sat and wallowed in them, listening to chiffchaffs and my first cuckoo.  The video clip below has the cuckoo singing (although if you're reading this on an iPad you sadly won't be able to see it).

Today though I've been creating with buttons. Ever since I saw this button clock on pinterest I've wanted to make one.  Initially I planned to go and buy a rainbow assortment of buttons to make one like that one but I changed my mind, deciding that a: I'm not really a plastic button, rainbow type of girl, and b: I have hundreds of buttons here!

So after some sorting, some careful measuring and some sewing I made this more muted one.

I had some problems stopping the mechanism from pulling the fabric back which made the hands catch the buttons, but a bit of ribbon and some drawing pins did the trick!

I'm really pleased I opted for the more muted colours, using a mixture of old and new buttons, as it looks just perfect on my dining room mantlepiece.

(Although I have just realised that one of the buttons I've used is the spare one from the coat I bought last November so I'll just have to hope I don't lose one from it!)