Days Off Amongst the Tulips

I love time off work at Easter, it always feels like a proper break.  This year I was able to spend most of my days outdoors.  I weeded all the paths (there are a lot!), and all the beds, and generally had a lovely time, mainly amongst the tulips.

These ones are at the very end of my garden, past the greenhouse and are mainly ones that have appeared by themselves.

These however, are ones that I've planted over the years:

Doll's Minuet

Charming Lady

Various Parrot types

Can't remember what this one is

Black Parrot

The greenhouse is full to bursting, but everything will need to stay in there for a while longer as we have some frosty nights forecast.

And the paths are mainly weed free, so I can sit and have a cuppa whenever I want to.

 I'm hoping for many more sunny days to sit and enjoy the garden :-)

Sunshine!

Today the sun came out, little white fluffy clouds danced across the blue sky.

In the garden spring is arriving:

crocuses and grape hyacinths have emerged,

hyacinths are in full flower, 

there are daffodils of all colours and shapes,

and the chaenomeles is in flower.

The pond is full of frogspawn :-)

And I have a new front door.  Gone is the warped, tired, wooden one that needed the postman to lean against it at times in order for me to open it,

replaced with a smart new black, composite one.  Looks like wood but won't warp and swell and doesn't have gaps for the wind to whistle through.

Hope you're all enjoying some sunshine too.

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 :-)

Lots of Blue and White

There's a lot of blue and white around at the moment, both in the sky and in the garden.

First of all, the whites:

clematis avalanche

dicentra spectabilis alba

exochorda

variegated white honesty 

white lilac

Next, the blues: lots and lots of forget-me-nots

forget-me-not

camassia

iris bud

It's not all blue and white though, the sky sometimes goes dark dark grey and the garden has splashes of other colours too.

cerinthe

Cerinthe self sows all over my front garden, and in the back there's more dicentra

dicentra spectabilis

 and the late flowering narcissus tresamble.

narcissus tresamble

But before I go, I must just share with you a tulip, now fully opened and all frayed and pretty -

Tulip Huis Ten Bosch

Tulips

I do so love tulips and this week they are looking their best.  There are reds and yellows,

 top L - unknown double, top R Golden Artist, bottom L - Bright Parrot, bottom R - unknown/forgotten

and pinks and whites

All unknown except bottom right - Huis Ten Bocsh

Doll's Minuet

Unknown

Also flowering today is this pasque flower, I love the hairiness of it,

and this delightful little plant, which I think is a wood anemone, but I have no recollection of planting it, although I must have done.

It's very pretty!

Spring Is Late

It's official, spring is late! How do I know? Well Facebook very kindly showed me this photo yesterday, taken exactly a year ago, with the exochorda in flower amongst tulips and dicentra.

And this was the same view yesterday -

no flowers on the exochorda yet, tulips still in tight bud and the dicentra has only just poked its head above ground level.

But even with this lateness spring is evident in the garden

and I hope that with a few more warm days, as is predicted, the rest will catch up too.