FLOWERS, FLOWERS, NOSE AND EARS

I have just baked a new spelt flour loaf and, whilst still warm, cut off the end, spread the slice with butter and am now eating it - aaah!

You know there is one side of ageing that surprises me every time I have my hair cut - the fact that the ears (and nose) continue to grow! It is the cartilage. Soon I will need a nose and ear trim?

So many flowers coming out and not just garden plants - one small delightful shy plant is the golden saxifrage by the stream.

And only a few paces away, where the stream plunges out of the wood, daffodils and primroses bloom.

In the fringes of the woodland flowering currant casts its familiar scent - I always thing a bit like cat pee!
We have several bushes that were here before we came.
It is quite easy to propagate - simply take a young, preferably non flowering stem, about ten inches long (25 cm), trim at the bottom with  slanting cut just below a bid and shove into the soil. They should root after a few months and can then be transplanted.

Around by the back door the daffodils are doing well under the magnolia stellata.

In the back bed the pulmonaria is spreading (keeps the weeds down) and on the end of the big shed where I keep the mowers the Clematis armandii is better than it has ever been. 

Of course there are other signs of spring - the back field is now full of lambs. And as usual they are drawing under the gate into the lane and mucking about in a unruly gang.

Now, as part from flowers, there are also other colours  in the garden, more subtle like the cardoon foliage.

Then here is the spot where we stuck new plants last year also showing foliage hues. That bed is still a problem as it was where the pink Japanese anemone grew - and still comes up from every small rootlet I failed to remove.

Above I showed you some of the stream - here lower down where it was redirected across the lawn you can see the curves I wanted - rather than a straight line to the hedge.

 And from the other side of the white birches - the view back to the house. The newer trees have not yet got their white bark - hopes for this year.

 And behind them the copper beech has grown a lot considering how small it was when planted. The intention is to have the white trunks standing out in front of its dark leaves.

 I had forgotten this hellebore near the wall. Unfortunately it is low down and hangs its head so you have to crouch to see up into the flower.

The first rhubarb is in the bottom oven. I have been spreading compost on the raspberries etc - better late than never. 
R is down in her writing shed for the first time this year, the sun is out and all is well with the world except rain is forecast for the next four days!

Enough, enough, the blog is becoming an encyclopaedia, time for a cup of tea.