MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY . . . .

As usual the forgetmenots are flowering in the edge of the rosebed, and elsewhere - particularly up in the wood where I dumped a load of deadheaded stuff two or three years ago.

Blue is always valuable in a garden and sometimes difficult to find - good blues that is. We have the forgetmenots that are a chalky blue and bluebells that have a violet tinge. When you see the classic bluebell pics like this one be SUSPICIOUS! There is some clever colour shifting going on. This was taken some years ago in Colehow Wood. Tilly has been gone from us for a lot of years. (And yes the question of another canine member of the household comes up regularly - we have just not quite got there yet).

Bluebells are in danger of becoming a weed in some parts of the garden and, horror of horrors, one clump looks suspiciously Spanish to me. I think I will have to dig them out to be safe but as the bigger Spanish version is everywhere in gardens hybridisation is a done deal and our lovely bluebell will change - sadly.

In the first photo you can see a yellow shrub under the cherry - this is it, not broom but a genista - and it is scented - not unpleasantly but not quite the butter of gorse.

Talking of yellow here is a wallflower plant in full bloom outside the back door (the one at the side) and it is three years old. It has been trimmed as they get woody and a bit straggly if left to their own devices. True they do not give the show grown as a biennial but still a useful addition to the garden. Well, I think so.

And, rambling on further here is a vase of sycamore with their green flowers. Actually they are attractive - and not something you see often in a flower arrangement. So, to the next pic and greater stitchwort in the hedgerow, an April delight. These are known as Poppers locally as the seed heads, if squeezed, pop.        

Well, this is a rather drab and boring diatribe today, tottering on the mundane. All the news is things like mowed, weeded, dead headed - no wait! We have our first three asparagus spears through - now two as R assiduously weeding the end snapped of the top of one of them.

So, Mow, mow, mow the grass all across the lawn,

Merrily, merrily, merrily merrily, life is just a yawn.

So let me blast away the blues (the other sort) with this pot of tulips and pansies. I got the bulb selection from Sarah Raven last autumn and boy have they been good.

Now, of course I have to decide what to do with the bulbs when the foliage dies down. Where do I put them? Not in the wood - out of place, not by the pond, they are really a bit dramatic for naturalising. 

I will have to animate my brain cell (the other one) and contemplate the future for these tulips. Any suggestions instantly rejected (unless from R when deeply considered)(before carefully being forgotten)(until she brings the subject up again) and so on.

Stealing myself for a Monopoly marathon - here come the grandchildren - lawns mown, rain falling so not much excuse. No, seriously, here comes a fantastic weekend - just wished we lived nearer to one another. But then we would have to abandon the garden here and they would have to abandon their amazing hilltop in Herefordshire.

Time for a Kakuro and a cuppa then off to collect them at Galgate.