Joys of Spring

Bags Yes please. Grand to be able to say...see you soon. Such a treat!

You can borrow mine, soop!

Bags I take a look in the library when next we're in Campbeltown.

Lilac lovers, have you read Elizabeth von Arnim's books, starting with Elizabeth and her German Garden? I think you'd like them.

We left two lilacs behind in our old garden. They were originally supposed to be dwarf, for use in containers! One of them grew to twelve feet, the other to eight! It was my mother's favourite - she always cut lilac for the house.

Soop that is such an annoying thing when you can"t grow something because of various reasons . I find that several types of plants don"t grow in our garden very well

Nonu Lilac is an all time favourite of mine. I would love to have it grow in our garden. Sadly, the salt air and strong winds dictate otherwise.

Just seen the first flowers on my lilac tree , white , my favourite , so pretty and lovely perfume although it is stronger when the sun is out which it appears to be doing at the moment

Lovely image jings! We are very lucky to have a cuckoo hunting in the field next to our house. Just watched him catching huge fat caterpillars one after another. Must have phenomenal eyesight because he's hunting from a telegraph wire and finding them in long grass and last year's dock stems.

Fab!

Heard the cuckoo this afternoon whilst lying on a warm wooden bench in the middle of NT parkland, watching fantastic cloud patterns against a blue April sky.

Bluebells lovely too.

I am NOT posting on a 'Summer' thread yet! Talk about wishing your time away!

Moving over right now........>>>>>>>>> but it's a cold start to those summer days.

yes, all fine. Trundled to the local (ahem) metropolis around the loch to pick up DD2. Popped into a hardware shop for a cobweb broom after parking the car and walked up to the station with it. So as soon as she came out of the railway station she new instantly that that strange looking woman waving a broom in the air was who she was looking for: "That'll be my mum", she thought.

Lunch at 'Rivendell', as I call it, and chatter all the way home. She's being given a tour of the 'estate' by DD3 at the mo.

And I've started the Summer thread so look for me there in future.

Hello Bags , another sparkling day in Kintyre. Still that nip in the air. Missed you today. Hope all is well with you.

Yes, it's chilly here. Had managed without heating (after the early morning two hours) until the evening fire for a couple of days, but the NE wind yesterday changed all that. It hasn't rained yet today though.

There was what I think of as a 'lek' of herring gulls cavorting above us this morning . They've quietened down now.

Bags Is it chilly where you are? I believe that there is a dusting of snow on the Paps.

Rory [you know who] has taken to his apartment. It appears that willing wifelets are few and far between. He was waiting on the doorstep for his breakfast. J opened the door, Rory barged into the kitchen, leapt up on to the sink unit and started eating the food as it was being extracted from the tin. After which, he yowled [noisily] for 'seconds' and, having polished the dish to a prisitne shine, washed his whiskers [briefly] stretched [gently] and went back to his bed [huffily]. We looked at each other and giggled...'He treats this place just like a hotel'

yet

Yes, we hear cuckoos a lot too, though not uet this year. Also buzzards. I love their haunting cry.

heard the cuckoo the last few mornings - mind you it was very early as it was the dog's comfort break and we were both standing outside. I love this time of the year (wish it was a bit warmer though). Usually the cuckoo gets into his stride in May when he will sing all day

The caterpillars haven't really got going yet, but bagitha has metamorphosed . Can you see my wings? angel fairy [bluebottle emoticon]

bagitha Isn't nature simply wonderful.

Two female sparrows with beaks full of dry grass
Perched in my golden bush,
The box-leaved cotoneaster,
Eyes turning this way and that,
Checking for danger: is anyone looking?
They fly up to the sloping slates
Of the mossy, lichen-covered bay window roof
And from there a near vertical flight to their
(no, sorry, the house martins' nests)
Under the eaves.
On the steep ground of the front bank
A robin is doing the same:
Gathering nesting material and flying in cautious jumps
Via the yellow-flowering azalea
To the hole in the bank behind some fern
And a clump of primroses.

A year before we moved here, I saw some trees in pots lying in a ditch by a country road. I daren't take them, thinking somebody was going to pick them up. But 3 months later they were still there- and then the next Summer I stopped again, and they were all dry and dying - so I took them home. Watered them and put them in the trailor with other plants we were taking over to our new house in Switzerland. The 3 silver birch did well - but 1 died in the first winter. The 3 rowans are doing fantastically. And the oak has survived two harsh winters (we are high in the mountains) - with the base covered with leaves, the trunk wrapped in garden fleece and the head covered with a fleece bag, in as sheltered a place as possible. We are too high for oaks officially, but I hope that with protection, it will get used to our climate and continue to thrive. Bless his cotton socks. Whatever happens, it is all bonus time as it was dying in that ditch. All green fingers crossed.

Near where we lived in the UK, they built was of those monster 24/7 ginormous Tesco - and all the countryside around was bulldozed, bar one huge ancient and magnificent oak - now stranded in a green square in the car park. I really feel for that tree and wonder each time what it is 'thinking'?

My dd planted an acor abou 34 years ago. It was meant to be a bonsai. It is now 15ft. Tall at the bottom of my garden. The jays love it! Some bonsai!

I'm pleased you're protecting your baby oaks, bagitha, you're good at that.