Joys of Spring

Annobel a happy conclusion for all concerned.
Now I really MUST drag myself away from this fun machine. I need to hobble...and prod dear Mr S with my crutch should he have any unfinished chores to attend to...
Back later.

Talking of cats, a bit of good news came from my family, one of whose young cats completely disappeared about six weeks ago. They had given up hope and cancelled her pet insurance when a call was received from someone who had seen DiL's poster. The caller had been feeding the cat for a few days. Now she is reunited with her sister and still at home! GS (aged 6) was overjoyed. It had been preying on his mind for ages.

Springtime brought with it certain urges [for Rory the friendly feral cat].
Since his wifelet and two daughter kits have been spayed, he's been on long, possibly fruitless treks to find a willing female. In the wee small hours, as I was inching my way to the bathroom, the sensor light was triggered. It was Rory, absent for several days, now lean and exceedingly grumpy, hoping to find some leftovers from suppertime. Girl cats had made sure that all dishes were well licked. He wandered off into the night. Can't help feeling sorry for him. The nice man from the cat sanctuary told us that Rory would benefit and be happier when neutered. Poor boy! We shall need to capture him sometime soon. Trouble is, he's far too canny.

That's going to be a cu - cu - cu - cold cuckoo!

I haven't heard one for years!

This morning I heard the cuckoo for the first time this year - I love that, always makes me feel good. It's a little bit earlier than last year but I expect that's due to the good weather that we've been having

bagitha soop is fabulous name. Very witty of you How did you know that I love tulips? When I was a little merry - [a long time ago] I recall walking arm in arm with my girlfriend and singing...'Tip toe through the tulips...' Happy memories.

To all my guests who attended the San Fransisco gathering - thanks for a swell party. We really should try to get together sometime and enjoy a wee celebration in real-time.

Nurse on her way to change the dressing. Hope she doesn't check my pulse...I'm still up on cloud nine and away with the fairies.

Back to catch up a little later. Be good

And yours was a thousand welcomes, soop! I've eaten all the cake now . Hope you don't mind your name morph!! x

Butter love your poem
bagitha Your smile on entering my room, filled it with a thousand spring x

super would have loved them! Don't you just wish we could do a virtual space shrink sometimes so that actual distances between us all were smaller and made visiting easier? That or bi-location skills.

Pignut is what its name suggests – a ground nut that pigs like to root up.
also edible to (by?) humans. Country children used to enjoy them. The plant has a lovely delicate umbelliferous flower of white lace. The Latin name is Conopodium majus. (No, I didn't just know that; I looked it up).

Another common name for fox and cubs is Orange Hawkweed (^Pilosella aurantiaca^).

Both these are much prettier than you might think from looking them up in books and they thrive in my garden

bagitha - I don't know what pignut or foxes and cubs are.

The kitchen table's enjoying the tulips - but thought how nice it would have been to give them to super

Thanks! I'm a dreadful patient! Worse than any man. And that's saying something

Fritilleries sp. are splendid, Jeni. Lucky you.
Hope your cold vanishes soon.

I love those flowers but they won't grow here. Mind you, I love my pignut and my foxes-and-cubs as well.

My snakes heads are flowering in the wild flower meadow I'm trying to create!

Mine's playing up with yahoo! I think I'm going to have to take it to a&e ie apple genius bar! Just hope I don't get seduced by the new one!

ThAt would be imagine if I could make this iPad behave!

I can just imafine a jugful on your kitchen table, butty .

When I arrived back from being away
I gathered my shears and entered the fray
Of a wild and woolly garden
Grown long with sunshine rays
And there at the back of my rhubarb cloche
Grew some forgotten stunted tulips
With hues of parchment white, dusty purple
Mixed with strikingly bright yellow-orange heads
Striped and tatty.
So along with some small lime-green-yellow euphorbia
I gathered a handful of Spring
Forgetting all about shearing, preening and pruning
And was happily home again.

My malus trees are covered in little red leaves and one of the rowans is also bursting forth.

These early days as the trees start to show their leaves are my favourite time of the year. Each morning when I wake up, the first thing I see outside my bedroom window is the wood and the view is getting gradually greener by the day. Magical!

It's lovely to see the trees beginning to get their new leaves. They seem to go all fuzzy round the edges with bright green growth. I love this time of year - it's the best I think, complete with the promise of the whole spring and summer ahead

Loved the spring green of the newly opening larch and hawthorn leaves that I drove past today. More primroses, lesser celandines, dandelions and daisies in my garden every day .

The bluebells are just beginning to flower in the woods around us - lovely!

Tramping about in the Ochils
On a day sunny enough for my face
To "catch it"!
Lovely old mill town pub,
The Woolsack in Tillicoultry
For a half pint of lager shandy after.
Then a drive back to sunny (yes, really!) Argyll.
I never realised till I looked down
At the wide Forth Valley
East of Stirling today,
That there is so much flat land in Scotland!!
Scotland doesn't do flat, much.