THE BEST TIME OF YEAR

The sun is streaming through the window. Lambs are calling ewes, ewes lambs, collared doves cooing in the ash trees, horses cantering about in the paddock next door, a cock pheasant calls, ducks quack - not the usual dawn chorus but it is only 6 am.

Down on the shed roof a mallard drake harasses a duck guarded carefully by her mate.

There are fifteen ducklings on the pond.

It is warmer than Istanbul, Athens or Barcelona. We went to Muncaster Castle to see the bluebells.

The rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias were also out and the sun on the old rhododendron limbs made them almost human in form. The view to Scafell up the Eskdale valley  over the giant magnolia was splendid. 

Along the terrace a tame robin sat in a shrub only a few feet from us.

Back at home, on a smaller scale a rabbit scurried into the hedge.

I have used old concrete reinforcing mesh salvaged from the builders to reinforce the fence around the veg bed.


Elsewhere the spring flowers are wonderful though I fear we have lost our hamamelis which has died.

 You may notice I have put in a photo of sycamore flowering - a sort of small green laburnum - the downside being that the garden is inundated with seedlings and small trees, most only a few inches (several centimetres) tall.
I wonder, if we Brexit will we go back to feet and inches, pounds and ounces, shillings and pence? There was always something pleasurable in knowing that there were six three shillings and fourpence in a pound sterling.

So, swallows over the house, bluebells in the garden, candles on the horse chestnut, sun shining, scent everywhere, even the first asparagus ready for picking - so early - so many photographs to take and the big mower penned in by a trailer full of builders' gravel, time for a coffee in the sun, back to the house wall watching the ducks on the pond.
This is the best time of year - spring in full flood - the wakening world.