April

No matter how long the winter, Spring is sure to follow. 

Proverb

The lanes speak for themselves, 

The tenebrous shroud of winter is pierced by blackthorn blossom. 

Green seeps quietly into the thicket while yellow screeches from the horizon. 

I simply watch and wait, 

in wonder.

The vagaries of March

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: 

when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade." 

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

....summmery enough for me to skip round the garden to see what's in bloom!

May

May has been a month chock-full of blossom. 
First blackthorn in the hedgerows, pure white, starry clusters. 

Then the orchard fruits. Unashamedly frilly cherry, plum, pink flushed apple and delicate pear. 

Candy stripe buds on the quince uncoil with poise while the deep crimson crab-apple buds rush onto the stage with pantomime exuberance.

Horse chestnuts burst into leaf at an alarming rate and then throw out a spectacular firework display, which for a few glorious days is suspended mid explosion. Meanwhile hawthorn and honeysuckle weave their way nonchalantly along the lanes.

I have loved May.

monday, washday

It’s a beautiful day and if I can’t sit outside under the magnificent Indian bean tree to write my blog what is the sense of working from home? I don’t even need the excuse of a tube strike! 
Ever alert, the chickens have rushed over as close as their fence will allow, hoping in vain that my cup of tea might instead be tasty scraps for them. 

The bean tree is laden with white blossoms, each little bonnet trimmed with a perfectly ruched edge. 

I’ve just put my gardening shorts in the wash, domestic detail but by the time I’d laid out the contents of the pockets I sensed a quick sketch was in the air.... all those irresistible textures!

exhibit a. a net bag

We have a couple of young walnut trees from which I have never yet enjoyed the crunch of a single walnut. Oh yes, the trees produce plenty of nuts but the squirrels know that too and pinch the lot before they’re even ripe. 
Our lovely neighbour who has been growing trees all his life has the same problem. He already has a pair of step ladders parked by the trunk of his walnut tree and is contemplating his strategy. I sense we are locked in friendly combat and will be comparing our harvests come the autumn. Meanwhile I am salvaging every net bag that would otherwise be heading for the dustbin and plan to tie one around every walnut. 

exhibit b. bee identification chart 

Moderately useful, frustrating how most bees seem to be a cross between two or more of the illustrations tho’. So I’m not really much the wiser.

exhibit c. pencil stub for writing on seed markers

No matter how sure I am that I’ll remember where I have tucked an extra sowing of lettuce seed, I’ve finally learnt that a seed tag avoids the inevitable confusion.

exhibit d. strips of my daughter’s ripped school tights 

Some women might carry a spare pair of tights in their handbag, in case of a snag. Well, frankly, I cherish the laddered ones! Cut horizontally into strips they make fantastic stretchy ties, indestructible and perfect for keeping my tomatoes erect. 

exhibit e. feather from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Simply beautiful.

exhibit f. a parsnip seed head

Waiting to be popped into an envelope ready for sowing next year. 
Now that wouldn’t have fared well in the washing machine!

Is it a tomato?

Is it a peach? 

No it's a walnut but is that enough to fool the squirrels?

Keeping pace...

'All good work is done the way ants do things: Little by little' Lafcadio Hearn

potted on tomato Red Cherry and Gardener's Delight

planted onion sets and shallots in individual cells in the greenhouse

sowed Butternut Squash, courgette Napoli and summer squash Tromboncino

aubergines have almost germinated… couldn't resist poking the soil for evidence

planted out Little Gem lettuce seedlings under cloche

picked salad leaves from the greenhouse for lunch…

…and enjoyed a cup of tea in the sun under the flowering Cherry Plum

Binky is a small brown hen

Three weeks ago Binky went missing. 

She was absent from the evening register and nowhere to be seen at breakfast.

There were two salient possibilities -

a) she had come up against a hungry fox

b) she was concealing a teenage pregnancy

Fortunately it turned out to be the latter. I found her sitting on a clutch of eighteen eggs.

Now at this time of year she could have chosen to nestle down in any number of picturesque locations, framed by any flavour of blossom....

 there's cherry or

 malus or

 ornamental pear or

 acer or

apple...

But no! I am forced to divulge an unsightly corner of the garden, where beyond the emerging cow-parsley and the smiling primroses there is a corroding oil tank swathed in an unsightly tarpaulin. It rests on two ivy clad brick piers between which Binky found her covert sanctuary.

So far we have one little black chick “Diesel” 

....and you wouldn’t believe how many times a day I’m checking to see if any more have hatched!!

Spring is in the Air

I’m so excited to finally see the Blossom range of stationery, that I worked on with the lovely, New York based Galison back in the spring. Perfectly on cue, outside our front door, the pale pink petals of Prunus Okame are blinking in the crisp, sunlit morning. Under the weeping ash there are flashes of white snowdrops, and a lone primrose has been flowering for weeks unable to contain itself until spring.... so I’m not the only one feeling unseasonably giddy!