Spring is here!

Today is the first day of Spring and it has turned out to be gloriously sunny. It was a big surprise to see such a quick change in the weather after the terrific thunderstorm and lashings of rain we had last night.

I woke to hear the dawn chorus from the many blackbirds, thrushes and tuis that visit our garden. 

I managed to photograph a tui in our neighbour's pink blossom tree which leans over our fence. The blossom looks like bunches of dangling bells and is full of nectar which the tuis drink. Tuis are lovely birds with a little plume of white feathers at their throat. Their song is amazing to hear, it is very long and cheerful with a very wide range of notes. 

I wandered around the garden with my camera and Otto followed as usual. I found many flowers just starting to open including a dainty forget-me-not, which I enlarged in the photo above, and discovered a tiny ant drinking nectar from one of the flowers.

I noticed a few flowers on the yet-to-be-named blackberry/boysenberry bush. We didn't have any luck with the fruit on it last year. The fruit all dried up for some reason, despite the amount of rain we had. This season I need to get advice on how to look after them and identify what sort of berry they are.

The pretty, mauve-flowered bush above fell over and split its trunk during the Winter storms. It managed to layer one branch, which survived, and this is flowering now. We had to remove all the rest of the dead branches. It used to be quite a large bush.  

The white arum lilies are flowering now and stand out brightly in the shade under the trees.

The Meyer lemons are ripening nicely. I picked one yesterday to use in a chicken and leek in white wine sauce recipe. The lemon was juicy and full of flavour and added just the right amount of zinginess to the dish.

The hellebores are still flowering since the beginning of Winter, and there are more buds forming. I don't deadhead the hellebores, they are left to self-seed under the trees.

This Spring we are lucky with the little blood orange tree. It has produced quite a lot of fruit for its size. Now it is just a matter of judging when they have ripened fully and picking them before the birds and slugs get to them.

A few of the anemone bulbs which were planted last Autumn are flowering. I was lucky to find this one which hadn't been munched on by snails.  

This fucshia managed to survive the Winter outdoors and today I discovered flower buds on it. When we bought it last Autumn it was in full flower. I took a cutting of it just in case it didn't survive, and the cutting has been successfully growing in the garage on a shelf by the window. I need to find somewhere to plant it out now.

The bad storms this past Winter blew the tree in our lawn over sideways even more, and it is now on a great lean towards our neighbour's property. We might need to contact an arborist for advice about it. If it needs to be removed we will need to get permission from the council who will come and inspect it. 

Our Alder tree was also blown sideways and lost many branches due to the hurricane. It is such a shame as it is a large old tree. It will be awful if we lose it.

On a brighter note, the Chinese primulas have grown well. They like the partial shade that they were planted in. And the flowers are in varying shades of pink and white. These should self-seed under the trees and bushes and make an even better display next year :o)

In the next week dad and I are planning to go to the garden centre to buy compost and vegetable seedlings. We will also be looking for flowering perennials and shrubs and maybe a couple of dessert grape vines. I'm not sure what time of year they sell different plants, but I enjoy looking anyway.

I hope this post finds you well and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Hugs, 

Rose xxx