Awake, thou wintry earth

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

 

A day off and some lovely time gardening.  The weather was changeable; cool in the shade, suddenly warm and lovely when the sun made a rare appearance.  We are trying to tidy up the garden before spring completely arrives.  There are definite signs of spring starting now.  A shrub I've had for a few years is flowering for the first time, it is quite exquisite, but I'm not sure what it is. 

 

Can anyone name this shrub?

 My spring garden is starting to look pretty.  The daffodils are in bud and the primroses and primulas are in full flower.  Tulips and bluebells are further behind, hopefully to greet us in April and May.

Mr C has planted his garlic and is now planting onion sets.  Garlic did well in the garden the last time we tried it, so hopefully we will have a glut.

Garlic

We are also planting several fruit bushes - here are three gooseberry plants, and we have two blackcurrants and a further redcurrant.



Gooseberries

The acid yellow of the spurge or Euphorbia is quite startling and cheers up the garden, most of which is still quite dormant.

 

I may need to make a trip to the garden centre to find another couple of these, they look really good the whole year.  I'm really keen to get on with growing flowers this year, I just need to thwart the slugs and snails!

 

 

In small pockets of the garden however colour and fragrance are appearing. From now onwards, the garden will only get more lush and green and I just cannot wait! 

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

The first day of Spring?

Today is officially the first day of Spring and of course, it is colder and duller than the last week or so.  It is almost as if Spring doesn't want to be pinned down and told when to start!  Everything is starting to bloom and bud in the garden though.  I took a little wander through the garden and took some pictures of the spring that is starting...

 

Everything is unfurling and slowly turning green.  I love this time of year, there seem to be endless possibilities and it all looks so very new.

Flowering currant

Comfrey

Even the roses are starting to bud

We are just back from visiting friends in Norfolk and spent some lovely days on the River Yare and looking at Norwich.  It felt that there were churches every few feet - there are still over 30 medieval churches in the city, most of which have other uses now, but in the early medieval days there were 57 churches just within the city walls!

The River Yare

We also visited the Castle and Cathedral.  The Castle was mostly just the main keep, it once spread across a far larger area, although where it could have fitted amongst all the churches, I don't know. 

 

 

Norwich Cathedral is a rather elegant Romanesque design, the cloisters were my favourite part.  I wonder if we can build some cloisters at Hazel Cottage?!

We ran out of time to visit all the things we wanted to, so we will just have to return one day.  I quite like the idea of visiting all of the 30 odd churches in the one trip, but we will have to see.  There are other adventures and holidays to plan before then.  It has been a long time since we've been to Devon due to weather and busyness, and when I haven't been there for a while amongst the leafy lanes and wild garlic I feel slightly bereft.

The March wind roars
Like a lion in the sky,
And makes us shiver
As he passes by.
When winds are soft,
And the days are warm and clear,
Just like a gentle lamb,
Then spring is here.

Anon

Bunting, Granny's bonnets and frogs-a-hiding

I did promise to report back on the open garden day the other week.   We spent days in the garden before the open day digging, cutting back, planting and weeding and planning what we can feed everyone.  On the day itself the weather was rather changeable but it looked like it was staying dry at least!  We visited the Rectory garden, which was first on the list, had some tea, and then raced back home to prettify the house and garden.  We put up some bunting at the back and the front, put out the homemade lemonade, fruit cake and shortbread biscuits on the table, put out some chairs and then waited.

I had lots of excuses in my head to explain why the garden isn't completely devoid of weeds and dead leaves, and why some areas are still a work in progress (honest!).  I was going to explain how the patches of long grass are actually to keep the frogs and birds happy, and the ivy was there to feed birds and insects...And...And..

People were slow to arrive, but they did arrive and I needn't have worried.  Almost without exception they were all gardeners themselves.  They understood that every garden is a work in progress.  More importantly, the garden itself actually looked utterly beautiful.  Although the frogs hid out of the way for a change, the finches and blue tits sang like crazy, the bees and hover flies and wasps buzzed around every flower, the swifts swooped overhead and the garden played its part to perfection.

 

 

As one of the visitors commented, it feels like a haven.  When you stand in the middle of our garden, all you can hear is nature humming and growing around you.  I was quite taken aback with the lovely comments about the peace and the lushness of everything.  After being at Hazel Cottage for almost three years I think the garden is looking at its best so far and we are very proud of it.

The work continues and the slugs still arrive...and we think the birds have managed to get into the netting around the redcurrants as we have about two left.... 

The pious bird with the scarlet breast

I came home early from work the other day on a beautifully sunny, warm, almost spring like day.  Opening the back door I could hear the melodious sound of a robin singing.  The song was so loud I assumed the robin was nearby however I found him sat at the very top of a tall fir tree two gardens away.  I should have known, the robin can never be said to be shy or quiet!

“The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it.”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden 

The song of the robin went on for some time, so long in fact that I had time to go back into the house and fetch Mr C's camera with a decent zoom.  Without knowing much about what setting I should use, I just zoomed madly, and tried not to shake too much.

The robin is a highly territorial bird, who will fight any other robin it assumes is taking over its territory.  This means you will only see the one male bird (and one female during fledging season) within a garden or three. They will sing all year round, even on the darkest winter's day - holding their territory by warning intruders with their song and their red breast.

Eventually the robin was replaced in his singing spot by a magpie, who was probably asserting his authority. 

I did find the robin in a nearby tree still singing away....

 'Art thou the bird whom Man loves best, The pious bird with the scarlet breast, Our little English Robin'. 

William Wordsworth 

 

The missing dead tree

When we moved into Hazel Cottage one of the things we loved so much about the garden was the number of trees in neighbouring gardens; apple trees, pear trees, hawthorns, seedlings from our hazel tree, a very tall fir tree, and amongst it all, stark leafless dead tree.

Part of the thicket in winter with the dead tree

This little thicket provides a lovely home to the birds we love so much - robins, sparrows, magpies, crows, goldfinches, pigeons and doves, blackbirds, great and blue tits and the seasonal visitors that some and go.  We would often be in the house listening to the birds outside, wandering into the garden only to find large numbers of magpies and crows congregating in the dead tree.  There was a mass meeting once where we counted almost twenty corvids chattering and arguing and flapping about in the dead tree.  The sound was deafening!

Without warning, suddenly this week the dead tree has gone.  Even though all the rest of the trees are there, and the birds still make a racket around us, we felt inexplicably sad at its loss. 

To A Dead Tree by John Clare

Old tree thou art wither'd--I pass'd thee last year,
And the blackbird snug hid in thy branches did sing,
Thy shadow stretch'd dark o'er the grass sprouting near,
And thou wert as green as thy mates of the spring.
How alter'd since then! not a leaf hast thou got,
Thy honours brown round thee that clothed the tree;
The clown passeth by thee and heedeth thee not,
But thou'rt a warm source of reflection for me.

I think, while I view thee and rest on the stile,
Life's bloom is as frail as the leaves thou hast shed;
Like thee I may boast of my honours awhile,
But new springs may blossom, and mine may be fled:
Fond friends may bend o'er the rais'd turf where I'm laid,
And warm recollection the past may look o'er,
And say by my life, as I say by thy shade,
"Last spring he was living, but now he's no more."

Blooming and growing

We came back from a wonderful holiday at the weekend and were eager to pop into the garden to see what had happened since we were last at home.  Rather arrogantly I expected that the garden would suffer without me there to tend and look after it.  What we discovered was stunning and humbling at the same time.  Our garden had done perfectly well without us for a week, in fact it had bloomed and grown hugely.  Roses, jasmine, alliums and foxgloves had all started flowering, the aquilegas and fennel had shot up in height and the cosmos and ox-eye daisy seedlings in the greenhouse had germinated. 

 

 

We spent a lot of time in the garden,  taking in all the changes that had happened, and trying to fight back against the weeds that were vying for attention.   In the hazel tree, we can no longer see the birds on the feeder as the leaves provide dense cover, although we can hear the blue tits, the finches and the blackbirds still, and the robins often appear on the fence waiting for us to start digging.  As if on cue, the swallows swooped overhead and it felt as if summer had arrived.  The changing of seasons carries on with or without us, although I like to think that we do help to make the garden more welcoming and beautiful.

The major vegetable growing season is now upon us and lots of work is needed to sow, tend, water and protect from slugs and snails, so Mr C will be very busy from now on.  Obviously the herbs and flowers do perfectly well without much interference from me, so perhaps I should spend some time just sitting and enjoying the garden!

I'm sure I've shared this poem before, but its one of my favourites and it feels rather apt:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies