It's been a while...

A bit like tidying up the garden shed, the longer you leave it the harder it is to just get started... And so too, I discover, with blogs.

The spring flowers have all faded and gone, leaving behind some interesting seed heads, or yellowing leaves.

The blossom has bloomed and fallen, and now there's the promise of apples, pears and plums in the autumn.

Nests have been built, and baby birds raised, and tadpoles have kept me entertained with their antics in the 'more successful than I realised' pond - there are little froglets in there now, some with both back and front legs.

Bees have been buzzing around for a couple of months now, and the Californian poppies have popped their hats and are dazzling everyone in the front garden.

There have been 'fun runs' and birthdays and, at the end of April, my aunt sent me her wedding dress - the 'something borrowed' for my mother's own wedding, on a snowy Boxing day in 1947. 

My niece, wearing her grandmother's wedding dress.

Growing, growing...

Spring has sprung, quite definitely... the celeriac has finally been harvested and the raised bed cleared ready for new planting; the garden (and the lane beyond) is filled with flowers and buds; and the sparrows are chasing each other like the Red Arrows on their day off, swooping down, zipping off, and the whole thing accompanied by their incessant chirping. All the other birds are singing their songs too, 'I'm here! Over here! Come and find me!' as they search for a mate. The noise and movement is quite crazy at times. I've only seen one lone little frog hiding in the pond, too shy to go a-courting. At least the plants just get on with it quietly - a bit of creaking, I'd imagine, as they push through the ground, a teeny, tiny, squeak, as their buds finally *pop*, a delighted sigh as the sun comes out and they turn their flowery faces towards it... Much more discreet.

Enough 'may' or hawthorn to allow for 'borrowing' some...

Rip Van Winkle daffodil

In the lane, white violets...

...and violet violets.

Forget-me-not. As if...