The sun is shining!!!

Congratulations on the sunshine!

Lovely selection of spring flowers. Love the blossom against the blue sky. I’ve been out gardening for three hours today and can feel it! Lol 😂

An enormous amount of colour for February - lovely to see all of it - especially the blossom.

well I loved your blog and all the photos. Such wonderful colour. We had a few spells of sunshine today but so so windy. Lots of rain battering against the greenhouse glass when I popped in to check and water everything. To windy to stay in there in case branches came off the beech tree.

The sunshine really brings out the colours in your garden.
We have celandines popping up everywhere and they are not very welcome but I am glad that you appreciate yours! Your violets look so pretty and I really like the narcissi growing amongst the heather.
A lovely garden.

Once again , Honeysuckle, I'm beholden to you for giving my wintery spirits a lift. Still under feet of snow here but today starts a five day warming trend (if you believe the weather forecasters) It's about 15 days early (by the old norm) with days just barely above zero and nights just below. The warming trend that starts the snow melt and the sap begins to rise in the trees. bless the memory of Boris hope the "girls" do better with young to take care of. I sighed at the sight of the violets blooming... mine are MONTHS away. I absolutely love them and encourage their spread anywhere they want to show up. I hope the mini freeze doesn't do any damage... every spring I'm amazed at the difference in the effect of spring freezes as opposed to the autumn ones.

Thanks Bathgate, sadly I can take no credit for the sunshine - otherwise I would pass it on to everyone.

Well done for the gardening Amsterdam, I'm afraid I haven't really done anything outside for ages. Did plant some trees up on the field, then went and bought two more, so have those to plant now. I do look at the brown stalks of the plants in the garden and think I could tidy them up, then, looking out of the bedroom window I see a flock of Goldfinches on the Lemon Balm stalks, Lavender and Phlomis, the Wren rooting about under the plant debris and the Blackbird turning over the dried leaves of the Montbretia/Crocosmia which I should have cleared up and think - which is better?

Thanks for the confirmation Meadowland. I look at it every Spring and never remember if it is a wild Cherry or wild Plum. It does have fruit which are tiny with lots of pip to fruit ratio, but are edible, if you are that way inclined!

It was the sight of the blossom Sunnydais that drew me outside to take some photos. The daffodils sort of creep up on you, one day a bud just showing, next time you look there are swathes of glorious yellow everywhere! I HATE planting bulbs, but all that moaning is worth it at this time of year.

Thanks Seaburn, I am grateful you always seem to take the time to read my blogs and comment. I don't blame you about the quick check of the greenhouse, broken glass flying about doesn't bear thinking about, let alone a branch coming down. We disposed of the height of our Beech trees as I got a bit wary of the danger to the bungalow!

I know that Celandines are not always popular Wildrose, my Sister moaned about them too! As we are on heavy clay, perhaps they have taken some time to get going, or perhaps with less chickens (fox cull) and less rabbits (who knows why?) they have a better chance. I know Boris is gone now, but he was just a big old fat Goose who didn't particularly like his greens, much preferred bread and cake, so it wasn't him! It's amazing that the Heathers grow at all, but they are raised up a bit so they are not on really heavy clay, and they do look good with the mini daffs.

Oh Wow Lori - feet of snow. I hope the Deer have survived the winter weather without decimating your plants too much, must be lovely to see them, but not so good to watch them eat things. The violets are lovely, I have lots of different sorts in the garden (somewhere), different colours and the speckled ones. Violets remind me of when I was a little kid and we picked them off the roadside banks, as well as primroses and took them home. Pesticides have probably killed them all off now sadly. These ones are a different sort of course, but pretty, even if they are invasive. The fox has got the chickens down to just two and the cockerel now, so that will be it, when these die of old age we are not replacing them for fox food. We both love the idea of the girls having some eggs to hatch into goslings, but then worry about that darn fox again, I'd like Turkeys and Guinea Fowl as well, but who knows! Since the advert on UK TV my OH thinks he might like an Ostrich! Wow! how his mind works??

an ostrich? how about an emu? you already have the peacocks... mmm...what about a lovely pair of alpacas or a llama..they would sound the alarm if the fox came around. I read somewhere that guinea fowl are good warning birds too...
https:// .be/K4xNtgg-Br4 thought you might enjoy this video.

Now you've got me thinking Lori, perhaps the advert is an Emu and not an Ostrich! But will have to study it now. We always found that the Guinea Fowl were brilliant at alarm calls and if there was a fox on the outside of the fence, they would, as a little herd, shuffle sideways always being in line with where the fox was. Chattering away like a clutch of maiden aunts at a strip show! We keep talking of getting more, so perhaps this year.
As for the video - how adorable is that? Of course one video led to another, so must go and do some work now!

That blossom against the blue sky looks gorgeous, a very rare sight these days, mustn't grumble as we have had a bit of sunshine today, I'm afraid its clouded over again now, too wet underfoot to attempt any gardening though, would end up sinking and doing more harm than good.. You have a lot going on Honey, all those daffs look lovely, a really cheery sight, the little violets I love, a real promise of spring arriving, I always used to pick them when I was a child to take to my nanna for Mothering Sunday, that was in the days when they were always seen along the hedgerows between town and the village where nanna lived, often walk along the same road but rarely see any now, I do have a patch here in my own garden though...Lovely blog and photo's Honey...

bhahahah! "maiden aunts" ...our morning giggle. xo

I remember Mothering Sunday too Lincslass. We may not have been a particularly religious family, but we went to Sunday school and Mothering Sunday was a service for families. The children picked bunches of Primroses and Violets and anything else they fancied, bunched them and gave them out during the service to their Mother. Sadly all the ditches that used to be clothed with Primroses have either been filled in because they have laid underground drainage (fat lot of good that usually does) or the leaching of weedkiller off the field has killed them.
I know what you mean about the garden being so wet, but I will soon have to go out and do a bit of weeding, if only from the path. Talking of paths, our shingle (including mud and weeds) along the front of the bungalow looks a bit like a mini Somme, where the rabbits have dug little pockets, presumably after plant roots, every six inches or so. Serves me right, I should have weeded it.

Glad to keep you amused Lori! The phrase is just so much what they remind me of these days.
Sort of bigger Jemima Puddleduck, they just need the bonnets and a handbag.
Maiden Aunts who disapprove of most things.
Sit in their favourite spot and scold anyone who comes too close.
Will suddenly lash out at a chicken who dares to think that food might be for the taking. (not that I think maiden aunts attack chickens!).
They sit near the field gate and spy on what's going on up the top end here!
When the gate is opened, they insist that they get first pickings of food from the Peacocks tray.
They just waddle about together, heads high and turning every-which-way, calling if anything disturbs them, calling when it gets dusk that it's bedtime, time for a snack and for them to be walked to their hut and safely locked in.
Strangely, if we are late home for any reason, they won't go to their shed, they sit and wait. All you see when you drive down the path are two white ghostly shapes sitting waiting. Then they show their disapproval by dashing off ahead of you to the shed, without any of their usual interaction.
If they had a shawl they could huff it up over their shoulders and look so disapproving!
Going back to Emus, I thought perhaps it would be fun to give the girls Emu eggs to hatch! What would they think of those when they hatched, stripey babies that grew so tall?

would your girls be as conscientious on the nest as they should be? ..or would you incubate them for the 40-47 days and then put them under the girls? I took a look on the internet to see about the process and it is done. do emus imprint like fowl? sounds like an intriguing project.

Wouldn't it be lovely Lori? When they have had eggs before (even though poor Boris never made them fertile) they sat like limpets to the nest and you took your life in your hands trying to get them off. Had to happen, getting them off, as one of them broke a rotten egg and stunk the whole shed out. Poor OH (delicate these men!) was left retching and gasping and was sent away while I cleared it out.
I think they do imprint, but it would be interesting to see them follow the geese into their paddling pool!