Spring has sprung.

Lots of signs that winter has ended and spring is here,

in the countryside hazel catkins adorn the trees, it looks lovely. Early flowers are in bloom, and birds are gathering nesting materials.

Snowdrops

and winter aconites are in flowers

as are the dwarf daffodils,

  there's even some of the large daffodils flowering

single white.

double white

double purple.

and we have masses of hellebores flowering,

crocus

and anemones.

 The apricot tree that I had worried might not take having moved it at the wrong time of year has suffered no set back and has a mass of flowers, all that we can do now is hope for lots of fruits, these flowers will have to be hand pollinated, it's too early for bees and other pollinating insects to do the job for us.

The first seeds have been planted,

I invested in a new set of deep root trainers, these modules are great for seeds and allows transplanting without any root disturbance. We have had some hard frosts over the last month and the broad beans in the tunnel looked sorry for themselves for a while but they have picked up again and are looking fine. The first of the rhubarb has been picked, we will have the first of the feast this evening.

This evening a large frog was spotted, heading for the pond, so we should have frog spawn in the next few days. Yes, spring is just about here.

I had a sudden urge last week to make a Bakewell tart using some of our own frozen raspberries, we had some lovely freshly  ground almonds, I had forgotten how delicious a proper Bakewell tart is. Something to make again soon.

could almost be an Irish summers day, grey and drizzly.

We took a trip to the coast, just to have a change of scenery, not to collect seaweed,

we stopped off at a well known pub right on the edge of the beach, hoping to have a nice sandwich and a coffee, unfortunately the kitchen is under modernisation, so no food, but we still managed to get a decent cup of coffee.

I loved the various bar notices ,

three of them made me laugh,

I'm not sure how their tourist customers would take them though, a couple are a little insulting .

Traveling over the Ox mountains I spotted a great house sign, I am guessing that the people who live there have cats.

Spring Spawning.

Today work commenced in the garden, it had started out  mild and sunny, the perfect opportunity to prepare the ground for the first plantings of potatoes, however by one o'clock it clouded over and the rain started, so we decided we would go to a garden center that we had been told were selling bare rooted hedging plants at a reasonable price.
We particularly wanted Ribes sanguineum, the  flowering currant, bees love the flowers of this plant and it blooms very early, however the garden center had sold out . We ended up buying ten Silver Birch which is a lovely tree. Bare-rooted but a good four feet high they should establish well.
On our way home we popped into friends to deliver a pot of Lemon Curd as a thank you for all the veg seeds they had given us on our last visit. We always enjoy seeing these people, both are very knowledgeable on gardening and many other things, including world matters so we always end up having a good old chin wag and lots of laughter! It's lovely to see how their garden is progressing, they have only been in their cottage just over a year but already the garden is taking on real form and not the over grown wilderness it was just a year back.
They also inherited a pond from the previous owners, again this was very overgrown but  they did a good clear out of over grown pond weeds, many of which we have cuttings of for our pond. With the clearance it has given the wild life a real chance.

Two happy Newts.

I have never seen so many Newts! The pond is teaming with them.

What a cutie, will he turn into a prince?

                             Also frogs,

who have very stupidly decided to spawn there, the Newts must think they have their own takeaway.

Takeaway for Newts.

Some of the frog spawn might survive, but most will end up as ready meals for the Newts.
Once again we came away laden with plant cuttings and rooted bushes, there are still places that are over grown, plus this time a jar of frog spawn for our pond. Hopefully this spawn will develop and not get eaten by any predictors. Although our pond is well established now, so far no frogs  have taken up residence.
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The Pork Gammon piece that we cured for Gammon steaks turned out well, they look as they should but we have still to try them. Hopefully they will taste as good as they look.