THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR

It is all happening - suddenly it is warm, swallows and martins have arrived, the rhododendron we got from near Matlock is flowering and its scent carried right across the garden. What a difference a bit of sunshine makes (and a bit of warmth). Coffee outside swathed in birdsong.

There is an endless removal of algae from the pond - surely there cannot be enough nutrient for it all?

A snow of petals under the cherries on the path denotes how short the blossom season has been with the late spring and sudden heat.

And all through the garden the season moves on, tulips beginning to pass, rhododendrons beginning to flower. In the late autumn I conducted an experiment with the azaleas - deadheading one bush and leaving the other alone. The one I deadheaded is covered in buds, the other not much. So I know what I have to do come later in the year.

 Up by the woodland edge the pieris BC gave us is in fine colour with the scattered forgetmenots in the background. 
Our bluebells are splendid and spreading (too much in some places) and there is the occasional white version as you can see in the middle here in the far woodland shade. Yet, even here weeding needs to be done - brambles and ivy, tree seedlings everywhere.

 The fruit tree blossom is partly over though the apple is not yet out. On the left is the greengage I and A gave us - fingers crossed it escaped the frost last week.

On the right are the croziers of the royal fern unfurling by the stream.

 The older white birch look good and now the copper beech behind is getting bigger it sets them off well.

Other news - back from San Gimignano in Italy I have been messing with the plethora of photos I took like this one of buttercups in a meadow. Even the humble buttercup can be dramatic.

There was wisteria in abundance too. I especially like this one trained over a doorway in the Rocca inviting one through.

Twice we have tried to grow a wisteria only for them to die without flowering. Perhaps when we have upsized and we have vacant wall space we can try again.

Last Saturday was the Print Festival in Ulverston and R bought a screen print by Gail Mason. Each on is unique. This one is called Learning to Love Yellow.

And then to make everything perfect we heard our first cuckoo, though it was in Dunnerdale.