Much better!

Today was a far better day in the garden. Only the morning was fine, but that was OK because the rain was forecast and I had things planned.

First thing, I went out with Pippa on the lead for a quiet browse at other people's front gardens. The nicest are nearly always outside bungalows. My favourite was a corner plot, with lawn surrounded by a wavy-edged bed of shrubs, including interesting small ones, - not many bulbs, and lots of space with promising looking sprouting perenials. I'll be back there in a few weeks'.

Then I weeded at the front, since it faces north-east. There's gratifyingly little to do at the moment, more bits of litter blown in than weeds, just a few dandelions. Everything doing well.



I took this rather poor snap, through the water, of a frog in the pond - or is it a toad? Either way, I love its being there. It feels like a natural approval of the pond we made.








For good measure, here's one of Velvet and Pippa together. This is the first time they have sat so close of their own accord. You can see Pippa making herself as small-looking as an Irish Setter can be, so as not to scare off her favourite friend!




Then I tidied up a bit in the conservatory and shuffled a few seed-trays around. In the last of the sun, with the greenhouse doors open, I sowed our tomatoes: Latah, Grushovka and Millefleur, each in half-trays to go in the magic box (heated propagator). Then I sowed pots of marigolds, pots of black hollyhocks, and a whole tray of gyspohila. PS also larkspur.

While I was showing things off to my husband he noticed a shoot coming up from one of the beans, thank goodness. They and the peas are taking their time.



I didn't blog yesterday because I did very little in the garden. We were busy though: we sorted out our jars. We have loads and loads of these and I don't think they've ever been sorted thoroughly before. We used them for putting homemade produce in (jams, pickles, dried herbs, spice mixture etc) and also because we find they are one of the few things mice can't eat through. This picture shows less than half of them!

The other big event yesterday was a garden visitor I hadn't seen before: a sparrowhawk. Not good for song-birds, I know, but a beautiful and moving sight even so. (This picture is by my husband and actually shows the bird in next door's garden.)