the running wave

We have had a cracker of a day today.  Sunshine all day long.  And the wind has dropped which meant I finally mustered the energy to go and sort out my raised bed.  It was full of young creeping thistle plants, which have roots that plunge down towards Australia, and a lot of cow parsley seedlings.  It's all sorted out now and ready for planting. Further along the drive the two plum trees are starting to flower, also the little white cherry tree, and the long narrow flowerbed, which runs along the side of the cottage, had a few surprises in it! In the garden, at lunchtime, we enjoyed sitting in the sunshine, with a glass of Prosecco.  It was a very civilised way to spend Mother's Day!  Now that the tulips are beginning to come out, there are lovely pops of colour in the flower bed and I feel that winter has finally been put to bed. I bought a little pulsatilla plant the other day.  The pasque flower.   T...

It's forty three years since I sent my mother a Mother's Day card.  I lost her on my birthday in July 1976.  She was only 59 years old and as I am well past that age now, mother to three amazing children, grandmother to ten, and continue to live life to the full, I know and lament how much she has missed. She was a lovely, gentle lady and a wonderful mum, and although I haven't been able to go out and buy her a card and rock up with a big bunch of flowers to say I love her and thank her for being my mum, there hasn't been a day since I lost her that I haven't missed her.  Whatever age you are, you always need your mum! The wild cherry is just coming into bloom and so here is my card for Mum today.  Simple and beautiful, and she would love it.

We have had weeks of strong winds, or at least it seems like it.  Fractious and exhausting weather, but late this afternoon the wind dropped, the Firth of Forth was flat calm, and the dogs and I had a lovely walk in the sunshine around a neighbouring newly-sown field.  Very enjoyable.

Spring is definitely busting out all over now!  Despite strong cold winds, due to be even colder next week (groan), trees and spring flowers are responding to their inner time clocks and bursting into life. A walk round my favourite field revealed fat leaf buds unfolding. As I walked past a huge willow tree I could hear buzzing.  I have just finished a beekeeping course so I am rather tuned in to the sound of buzzing.  Looking up, I could see the pollen-laden catkins being visited by lots of happy bees!  It was a beautiful tree, especially with the sunlight catching the top boughs. In the little copse near home there are lots of primroses flowering, and a few cowslips.  There are lots more to come.  There are quite a few fruits trees in there too, and larch trees, which are also in flower.

I have three vases this week.  The largest is the work of Devon potter John Maltby and it contains some stems from the only garden plant we inherited when we moved to our cottage at the end of 2016.  It's a very handsome shrub called  Tasmannia lanceolata , mountain pepper.  The only other place I have seen this plant is in the lost gardens of Colonsay House, on the Hebridean island of Colonsay (our favourite holiday place!)  The pot with primroses is another by John Maltby, and I'm afraid I can't remember who made the little stoneware pebble pot, but I have put a single blue primrose in it to celebrate the arrival, yesterday morning, of our newest grandson.  He is fit and well and he and his mum should be home later today.  Hooray!

We have a new baby grandson, born at 10.13 this Sunday morning!  Hooray!  So much love and many congratulations to our son and his wife, and their little two year boy, who is currently here with me, playing with Thomas the Tank Engine. In celebration of this brand new little boy's arrival in our family I am posting one of my favourite photos,  A Shepherd Boy by Franz Von Lenbach.  He is lying there in the sunshine, blue sky above, harebells at his side, and without a care in the world.

I am just posting a couple of photos I took a couple of days ago with my phone, to see how they shape up here - quality-wise.  In their defence, it was very windy and almost impossible to hold the phone steady enough to take a photo, plus the dogs were pulling on their leads, but the image was so good that I had to have a go.  The colours are true, and although the photos are not crisp, they have a rather nice painterly quality, so they are fine with me!

It's Tilly's twelfth birthday today.  She is in good shape, enjoys life - especially her food, and can give Ted a run for his money when they have a chase around.  She is a wonderful companion, and as the sun shines brightly on her birthday we wish her love and many happy returns of the day! And there is absolutely no way she is going to let Ted anywhere near that tennis ball! Happy Birthday Tills. xxxx