Out in the garden

On Wednesday 3rd  April the garden still had snow lying on it but in most places it was clear. Nevertheless, the Blackbirds were still appreciating all the apples we’d been giving them.

A friend of mine in Corsica said not to worry about the flowers under the snow – they’d soon bounce back.  I didn’t really believe her.  After all, how could the delicate stem of a Daffodil or the open bloom of a Primula survive under all that snow?

She was proved correct in most cases.  As you can see there is a Daffodil or two in the background still a bit battered and a Primula bloom that has been burned by the snow but in most cases they looked fine on Thursday.  

And on Friday I was out in the garden in the sunshine (though it was bitter) and by Saturday it was warm enough to relax on the patio between gardening jobs. More photos from then will appear shortly.

In the meantime, since I know some of you get withdrawal symptoms if she’s not in a post here is someone about to discover that the woodpecker on the Honeysuckle and Clematis pergola is plastic.

Gimme!

Ivy doing some gardening

Well, I've had three days away from the computer.  One day off sick.  One day preparing food and tidying the house and hunting out some books to give to Daughter-who-takes-photos.  And then one wonderful day with said Daughter and Friend-and-Son-in-law-who-loves-otters when they visited.  This morning the sun is shining and I've been gardening, despite a nippy wind, taking up where I left off the day it started snowing a fortnight ago.  There's still snow about but only the odd tiny patch. Yesterday's warmth and sunshine put paid to most of the last of it.

At the weekend, helped by the postmen not coming in the snow and the fact that it was Easter weekend, I got my Postcard blog up-to-date.  Now, Thursday, it’s thirteen cards behind. Not that I’m complaining, every card is most welcome and each one will cause me to do some interesting research to write about it.  

Postage prices went up again in the UK on 1^st April.  I wish they would stay stable for more than six months at a time. It’s not just the increased cost it’s all that planning that went into creating 87p combinations of stamps for sending to people.  Now I have to do completely different combinations or add a silly little 1p stamp

Ivy is glad to have the snow gone and this morning was playing around while I did some gardening.  

 I tried a few photos but most of them turned out to lack an Ivy. She was zooming around at the other end of the garden by the time the shutter clicked….

She helped me a bit.

“You asked for the trowel – is this the trowel?”

“Meow, meow - Excuse me, I’m stuck up here.”

“Well don’t just stand there, help me down?”

“This thing moves when I put my paws on it.”

“I think you’re being mean leaving me stuck up here so you can take photos.”

“Oh look, what’s that skipping across the lawn?”

“That’s one leaf that will never skip again.”
 

London in 1904

I saw this on Jenny Woolf's Travel blog and could not resist sharing it with you. Despite the fact we use cars and lorries nowadays the hustle and bustle of a century ago seems quicker rowards the end of the video.

Those clever Ancient Egyptians