Sunday, April 16, 2017

Easter Time..

All around, the hedgerows and gardens are full of colour, spring has definitely arrived. We heard the first Cuckoo last weekend and yesterday the Swallows arrived.
In the woodlands Bluebells

and Wood Anemones are in flower, the perfume from the bluebells is wonderful. The wild Garlic is also well up,  but no flowers as yet. We had a drive out to Forest Park and then onto Derreen woods to see and smell spring time.
Close to Derreen woods someone is farming Llamas, they look to be doing very well and are definitely looking very woolly, last year we saw them just after they had had their babies, maybe next time we go that way we will once again see their young. Most of the local farms have now finished lambing, it's lovely to watch the lambs playing chase and 'King of the Castle'. Our wild birds are not so interested in the food we leave out for them, they are too busy making nests.
All the  Blackthorn hedgerows are now covered in white, they look as though someone has covered them with lace, they look beautiful.
Everything in the garden is growing well, including the weeds,
we've had our first picking of Asparagus. If the fruit blossom all set we will have a bumper crop of  fruit this year,
the Lough Key crap apples have lots of flowers as well as the  Victoria plum trees,  the apples also have a lot of buds.
At last, one of our two Damson trees has bloom, first time in five years, I had severely pruned one of them, threatening it with the  chain saw, but it's the other one that has the flowers.
 Both of the peach trees have set lots of fruit, however the Apricot tree has not, despite having been well hand pollinated, the friend that gave us this tree also failed to get fruit to set.
The lemon is  full of bloom, again something that has to be hand pollinated although we do leave the porch door open in the hope that a bee might arrive and do the job for us, the perfume from the lemon is lovely.
 Even the Blueberries have lots of flowers this year. Unless we get a late hard frost we should have lots of fruit to carry us through the year. Vegetable seed sowing continues, the propagator and greenhouse is full of seed trays and modules, there's always something that needs doing at this time of year.
We still have lots of daffodils but the tulips are now taking their place for colour.
My last pottery project turned out well, I had ordered a special glaze for it and I'm very pleased with the outcome,
I have now started another one to make a matching pair, but it will be several weeks before it's ready as Jacki my teacher only fires when she has a complete kiln full, I will just have to be patient.
Being Easter we once again made a dozen Hot Cross buns, unfortunately they didn't last , we ate them all in two days, maybe we will make some more, they were delicious.
Finally, colour overload, some of our Tulips.

6 comments:

  1. It's a wonderful time of year with everything bursting in to life and so much colour around. I like your vase, you're doing so well with your pottery.

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    1. Every day there seems to be something else coming into flower, it's great to have so much colour around.
      I love doing the pottery, I had wanted to do it for years but never had the time or there was never a teacher near enough.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks Janice, you have yours to look forward to.

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  3. Really beautiful vase, love the colour and design. What an impressive array of Tulips! One of my favourite flowers! xxx

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  4. I love the vase and I'm making a second one to match also a abstract dish to match the two vases.The tulips are great this year, I'm not sure how many different types we have, the same goes for the daffodils, I lost count after twenty.

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