A Few Nice Days

The sun came out this weekend! The cold easterly wind dropped and the sun actually shone, it was wonderful.

This little scilla had been in tight bud refusing to open for weeks but is just feeling brave enough to open today.

I've had the heater on most nights still in the greenhouse but have been able to open the door during the day over the weekend!

My greenhouse isn't really big enough at this time of year so the conservatory is starting to be taken over by plants too.

Today in the sunshine the Chaenomeles blossom started to open

and I spied a little mouse rooting around at the back of a flower bed

and this young blue tit had a long feed of peanuts.

I've also had alot of siskins on the feeders today but haven't managed to get an picture that is vaguely in focus of them yet!

Maybe, just maybe, these few nice days will turn into more and more nice days.....

What Do You Want That Old Thing For?

It's really not feeling much like spring here, the wind is biting and although we've had some sunshine today, it's now back to grey and gloomy but in preparation for the long, warm spring gardening days ahead (ever hopeful!) I started sorting out the muddle of tools that were falling over in my shed. I have a motley collection of various tools but my favourite ones are my old ones.

Apart from the dibber which I bought in a junk shop, all the rest have been passed down to me. There's my Dad's wooden mallet (I think he knows I've got it!), Aunty Elsie's asparagus knife, Granny's hoe, Grandad's rake and shears, and Grandpa's spade.  I love the fact that these have been used by other passionate gardeners, and the wood always feels much nicer than modern plastic handles.

I also have an old trug, which is currently residing in the conservatory but comes into its own in the summer in the veg garden.

My family generally think I'm nuts and are often heard to say "what do you want that old thing for?" as I stop them from throwing things out - I got very excited by this old tin of my Dads!

But on my way down to the shed though I did spy some spring cheerfulness, daffodils

wind flowers

 and the buds of ornamental rhubarb.

I hope you all have wonderful Easters and that we'll all have some nice, warm, spring weather soon!

Little Tiny Springy Steps

The weather is not really conducive to gardening today as it's raining and blowing a right old hooley. But earlier on in the week we had a sunny, if very cold day and the garden was definitely showing signs of it 'nearly' being springlike.

These crocuses in the front garden were planted before I bought the house,

I love the contrast of the purple and orange,

whereas these yellow ones were only planted last autumn and I really like the subtle yellow colour.

Clematis Freckles is still flowering away, although she's quite high up in the tree so I do have to remember to look up!

And there will be crumble for tea, but not for a few weeks yet I think!

Yesterday I sowed tomatoes in the heated propagator and tomorrow I will sow leeks and plant my shallots in pots.  I'm experimenting with gardening by biodynamics this year so I couldn't sow the leeks at the same time as the tomatoes. It does seem to require pre-planning and organisation, which is where I may fall down, but at the moment it's my intention!  I'll tell you more about it another time.

Oh, and I found my lost scissors, they were under the seed compost in the shed.  'Of course' I hear you cry, 'where else would they be?'!

A Little Bit More Mud and Lots of Light!

I seem to have an ability to attract mud at the moment (remember the snowdrop/dragon hunt of the other week?).  This Friday was Light Night in Sudbury.  It was a celebration of art and artists of the Stour Valley, from Gainsborough and Constable to modern artists, and yes, you’ve guessed, there was a certain amount of mud involved!

By the time I met up with Celia the rain had stopped and we started off by watching a light projection onto the church in the market square, images from both old masters 

and new masters - this one is from one of Celia's linocuts .

The path/track down to the water meadow was quite muddy but worth negotiating as the water meadows were lit around the edge by lanterns that changed colour 

and the trees were also lit up - it was quite stunning.

On top of a boat floating along the river was an illuminated mechanical swan - again quite stunning.

And there was mud, quite a lot, which was quite disconcerting in the dark and a degree of concentration was required to stay upright (but I'm pleased to say we all did!).

Fortunately we managed to keep our feet under the table when we retired to the pub to eat.

And then on Saturday, when traipsing down the garden to the greenhouse I spotted the first daffodil to open.  

In my excitement of photographing the daff I managed to completely lose the scissors I had in my hand - and I still haven't found them!

The White Forsythia is Flowering

When I posted about the buds on my Abeliophyllum Distichum (otherwise know as White Forsythia) several people asked me to post pictures when they opened so here they are:

It only opened properly this week and although it's still quite a scrawny looking shrub I'm so pleased that after 4 years it has actually got a decent number of flowers on it!

As well as looking delicate and beautiful they also have a very pleasant scent.  The very slight pink tinge isn't really visible except through the camera!

It's not an easy plant to locate, I got mine from the Place For Plants, but if you can track one down I would recommend it as a slow growing lovely early spring shrub.  I need to prune mine when it's finished flowering to try and persuade it not to be quite so scrawny.

I'll leave you with Mr/Mrs Robin who was watching me take photos of the White Forsythia!

 

A Tale of Snowdrops and Dragons

This afternoon I had the choice of snowdrops or dragons - to walk in a wood and see the snowdrops or to track down a dragon in the next village (bare with me I haven't lost the plot honestly!).  I chose snowdrops as I thought they wouldn't be around for very long and off we went.  We went to Chalkney Wood near Earls Colne in Essex.

It turned out a bit like the book 'Bear Hunt' as we found mud - lots and lots of mud.  We couldn't go over it, we couldn't go under it, we had to go through it!  And it squelched and it squelched and it squelched!

We didn't find snowdrops in the wood though and we did get ever so slightly lost.  But when we eventually found our way back to the car we spied some snowdrops on the opposite verge to where we had parked!

But on the way home something rather exciting happened - we took a detour to try and find the dragon.    The legend is that in 1405 a dragon appeared out of the river Stour in Sudbury.  The townsfolk tried to kill it but all they did was agitate it and it went back into the river towards Bures where it disappeared into a marsh.  You can read more here if you want to.  I'd heard on the radio that there was now a dragon on a hillside in Bures but until last night I didn't know where it was. We followed the directions I'd been given on twitter and went down a tiny track by a reclamation yard to St Stephen's Chapel.

The chapel was built in about 1200 on the site where Edmund was crowned King of the Angles in 855.  And there on the hillside overlooking the chapel we found the dragon.

He's quite impressive and I'm so pleased we found him!

Tiny Signs of Spring

Walking down the garden today I spotted signs of spring.  Only little signs at the moment and I did have to look hard to see some of them, but they're there alright!

One (yes I did say one!) snowdrop next to the hellebores. (I'm not sure where the other snowdrops have gone...)

Tiny chaenomeles buds breaking

and lilac buds beginning to fatten.

Aqualegia leaves unfurling

And the delicious scent of Lonicera Fragrantisima filling the air.

But the thing I am most excited about is the amount of buds on this - Abeliophyllum distichum (or White Forsythia).

I planted it about 4 years ago and have hardly had any flowers in the past - so this is looking very hopeful!