Be careful what you wish for.

The last couple of days have brought us showers, much needed and it kick started things, today however it has been raining most of the time, I just hope it does not continue for too long, we don't need a summer like last year.
Thanks to the rain the parsnips have now germinated, I think they were sown the third week in February but the warmer temperatures and a little rain worked wonders. The leeks have now been planted out and carrots sown, the outside onions are doing well but the garlic looks as though it's struggling,  the early potatoes in the tunnel are showing very little growth, we were digging them this time last year, we will not last out with our supply so will have to buy potatoes soon, this will mean a trip to Galway's Tesco, some 50 miles away, we do have two nearer Tesco's but unfortunately the supply of Organic anything in these two stores is very poor,  although we have a Lidl in the town unfortunately the Organic potatoes that they have are not nice.
 We estimate that everything is at least a month behind last year. The strawberry's are blooming now without frost damage,  but we were eating them last year at this time.

Hawthorn just showing buds.

There is little sign of buds bursting on the  trees, everything is struggling. At least there are leaves on the blackcurrants, and the daffodils have been revitalised , they were suffering from lack of rain.
 We have cauliflower and broccoli waiting to be planted out on the next dryish day.

 The tomato plants are looking good, but it's still a little early to plant them into the tunnel.
We are still waiting to hear the cuckoo, but the snipe are now calling, doing their imitations of a goat, so nice to hear although a little eerie.
We are hoping that one of the ducks will go broody shortly so she can sit a clutch for us rather than having to incubate them ourselves, two of the ducks do appear to be looking for a suitable place, climbing out of their run daily. At the moment we have twenty hens eggs in the incubator which are not due to hatch until the end of the month so the ducks have two weeks to go broody, if they don't we will have to incubate the eggs ourselves.

We needed rain.

Thanks to the rain the grass is now beginning to recover and is greening up nicely, it was strange to see everything so parched and dry, not what you expect in Ireland where everything is normally so green.