APRIL

Easter Day. April 1st. All Fools Day. Sunny but cool. Transplanted more snowdrops, removed last of bulbs from rose bed and now just three massive shrub roses to move with roots like steel hawsers. Tidied around the pond and raked out debris. Despite all attempts at eradication the pendulous sedge is spreading and thriving - a real thug.

The path up from the pond looking good with the daffodils.

As are the daffs on the top banking

and the primroses.

These are wild but nurtured. I do not like the gaudy garden ones as much - and the same goes for the wild daffodils further along.

Shrubs are stirring - the flowering currant with its fragrance of cat pee. Mmm perhaps fragrance is not the right word?

and the hazel catkins are casting clouds of dust over the lawn.

These are the stems of the Stipa and I have still not decided what to do with them. I must be able to use them constructively, not just shred or burn them.
  I have just watched a wood mouse six feet up the side of a shed on a sunflower seed feeder - agile animal!
  Am in the doghouse as I did not shut the freezer door properly, it caught on the ice shelf. So the dustbin is full of homemade soup and veg and stuff. 😬
  And now we have been attacked by insects - well, not us but my wooden jumpers munched by moths - to the bin. 💀

And birds - the hen pheasant is getting tame and full of eggs. I went out to feed the birds and she came running.

Not all of the birds have done so well - not much left of this pigeon - I think pigeon. The sparrow hawk has been in the garden. Down by the compost heaps are scattered white feathers. I am not heartbroken - we are plagued by wood pigeons this year driving the small birds from the feeders and generally being a nuisance.

So now I await the arrival of my gardening help. The perennials are in the veg bed and waiting - for better weather. The turf will be removed from part of the lawn and the soil lightly forked as there are cherry tree roots below. Then the soil from the existing bed will be plonked on the top and firmed down before introducing the plants. After that it will be a case of top dressing with compost or well rotted horse manure.