HOEING AND MOWING AND SO ON

Monday -

This morning we were wrapped in a cold high pressure mist.

Now I am sitting on a seat beside the house looking west over the garden, my Portuguese hat on my head to shade the warm sun. It is a beautiful April day and I am reading a book by Jo Nesbo.

Tuesday -

My son C is down in the Wendy House working on his website - the educational company Educake. There are a pair of mallard sitting in the shade of the eucalyptus, resting. R has brought out a cup of tea, for herself, for me. She has been writing in the kitchen.
I notice two jackdaws have joined the usual tits, finches and sparrows by the feeders and then movement catches my eye.

From the shrubbery at the top of the garden two fat rabbits hop down to the longer grass and begin to groom and feed.
Sometimes a garden is heaven (except the b***** rabbits).
Of course there are disadvantages to ducks too - they have consumed all the frogspawn.
(Rabbit at bottom of beech hedge).



R. has been weeding and I have hoed everywhere, especially dealing with the sycamore and ash tree seedlings.
At this time of year - before the goosegrass and bindweed emerging - we have three bad weeds - ground elder (thanks to the Romans who introduced it (as they did with the rabbits)), nettles and, more recently - wild garlic. It is sowing itself everywhere and is a tough cookie.

Looking around the garden I see many shrubs pruned into the sales I want but two trees have their real shape - both pyramidal - a holly in the bottom hedge and a bay by the house.

And the lawns are mown for the first time, builders stuff - pipes and chippings have come on the wagon - I also got some slate ones for the paths.

Here is the engine in the wood - 4 cylinder block and cast iron - very heavy.

And here is the rabbit hole dug into the bottom of the bonfire before I blocked it up.

Later - 

So hoeing and mowing and weeding and feeding (with manure) have gone on. 
The two gooseberry cuttings that have rooted are to go to Herefordshire to my daughter and son-in-law.

Wildflowers like primroses are flourishing.

A spotted flycatcher is in the hedge, flying out from its perch to catch an insect and then returning, then repeating this again and again.

Later again - 

I have been weeding the bed near the pond with the candelabra primulas and was pleased to see so many plants and new seedlings. The flat stone "beach" has been drawn out to the whole curve and I have planted some kingcups (marsh marigolds) near the outlet. If we cannot get more big flat stones then slate chipping with an underlay sheet may be the answer in front of the Wendy House.

Then I brambled the hedge and it brambled me. One blackthorn spike went right through my Wellie boot into my foot!

I will end for now with pics of a Madame Le Fevre tulip (my  mother's favourite), pulmonaria and Anemone blanda. The garden is colouring up.

Time for another garden sit in the sun with my book and a drink of some sort - or OTHER!