Little star and Little brown one

Now that it's spring, all kinds of birds that visit our garden here at Hazel Cottage are making more noise, and there is no bird noisier than the common starling.  We have been watching them closely and we have heard some quite remarkable sounds!  I never realised how much they mimic other birds - we heard a bird of prey followed by the quack of a duck today which sounded rather funny.

 

Starling and winter jasmine in our garden

 

Starlings are often seen as noisy and swaggering birds, which is probably true, but they are quite remarkable.  They are acrobatic in flight, you only have to see the photos of the wonderful murmurations in the countryside to see that.  We often see a little group at our bird table, squabbling and chattering amongst themselves and slightly intimidating the otherwise bullish woodpigeons. 

We've been learning more also about the Dunnock.  Its name means 'little brown one' and it is one of the unobtrusive birds in the garden, usually quietly hopping amongst the undergrowth.  For such a small, generally quiet bird it has many names, hedge sparrow, accentor as well as dunnock.  This time of year of course, the dunnock is singing beautifully - I think this year is the first time  I've heard it sing and known what it was. 

Dunnock in a small hazel sapling

Two common birds in the garden, but by watching them more closely we've learned quite a lot about them and probably learned to appreciate them more.  The weather this week has been bright and lovely and great weather for taking pictures as well as gardening.  I'm very pleased with how the garden is coming along, and we haven't reached the height of spring yet.

Today in the garden

Rare as hen's teeth

Today was one of those seemingly rare things, a sunny and warm Easter Bank Holiday.  I always equate bank holidays with watching old black and white films whilst the rain pours all day outside.  Today after a non-descript Easter weekend weather wise, it was sunny, warm and clear for most of the day.

The flowering currant is now resplendent with its pink flowers.  Looking from one end of the garden to the other, you can see the pink of the currant next to the warm yellow of the forsythia.

The weeds or wild flowers are growing apace as well.  We now have speedwell growing in our lawn.  Luckily our garden isn't manicured and perfect, we rather like wild flowers unless they choke everything else!

For some reason we also have chives growing in a shady corner of the lawn as well.  Which makes a change from moss I guess.  It was wonderful to spend hours outside, looking at everything growing and listening to the birds singing.  The last week has been very busy at our local church and preparing for various social occasions at home.  I even helped our flower ladies with a few displays.

I'm sure most people would think me crazy, but when it comes to Easter, I do like to make an effort decorating the house with flowers.  And eggs and chicks!

I also enjoy making a simnel cake with home made marzipan.  This year's simnel cake went particularly well I think.  It was very tasty.

I do hope you have all had a good Easter weekend.  I would love to hear how you celebrated.

The language of flowers

There are lots of books that tell us about the meaning of flowers.  The Victorians were fascinated by the subject and hundreds of books were published about it.  A white rose means purity and innocence and a red rose means love.  The new tulips which now grow in our garden mean 'declaration of love' and our alliums mean 'prosperity'.

Even Shakespeare's plays were used, rue was said to indicate regret - this is from Ophelia's mad ravings in Hamlet:

 There's fennel for you, and columbines:

there's rue for you; and here's some for me:

we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays:

O you must wear your rue with a difference

Rosemary is said to symbolise remembrance, the tradition of this is probably far older than Shakespeare's time  'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance.'  

We are lucky in England in that many of the flowers that grow wild have wonderful names that describe their traditions and meaning.  My favourite of these if Forget-Me-Not, a dainty and beautiful flower that we grow here at Hazel Cottage.  This year we even have some growing wild in our lawn!

So many flowers are named after Mary, the mother of Jesus.  The Madonna Lily of course, but there are scores of flowers and shrubs named in her honour, usually starting with 'Our Lady'.  Lady's Mantle still bears her name, but in medieval times clematis was the Virgin’s Bower and lavender was Our Lady’s Drying Plant.  In the fourteenth century the poet Dante called Mary "the Rose, in which the divine Word became flesh."  So of  course the rose is also her symbol.  Even the humble marigold - or Mary's Gold as it once was, is named after her.

Lilies at our local church at Easter

I tried to bring in a good number of flowers into the house for Easter.  This year I was blessed with a larger number of flowers as Easter was quite late. In addition to the daffodils we bought, I added forget-me-nots, grape hyacinth, pansies, chive flowers and flowering currants.

 

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

Their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers

'Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.'  Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

We sat in the garden on a warm, bright Sunday afternoon eating home made rock cakes and watching the bees.  Suddenly spring is here and everything is blooming.  My spring garden is filled with bluebells, comfrey, tulips, hyacinths and primroses.  Even the borage has started to flower.  The whole garden was buzzing with bees, wasps and hoverflies of all kinds. 

 

I'm not an expert in bees, but we did see several different types - some bumble bees and some more shaped like honey bees.  Some were very dark and others were almost ginger or yellow.

They particularly love the comfrey flowers and spend most of the spring dancing around them.

I must state that I didn't take these wonderful photos - they are the work of Mr C, who is brilliant with things like this.    I did however make the rock cakes!

My sister and brother in law keep bees and were selling their honey at a local market this weekend.  These wonderful little creatures always feel rather miraculous and magical to me.

How doth the little busy bee 

Improve each shining hour, 

And gather honey all the day 

From every opening flower.

Isaac Watts

Supposing him to be the gardener...

It was a rather busy Easter weekend with seemingly little time spent at Hazel Cottage.  I spent most of Good Friday at choir practice for a performance of Maunder's Olivet to Calvary in the evening, and we visited family and friends on Easter Sunday.  We did manage to fit in a lovely walk on the sunday and came across these beautiful flowers along the roadside.

 

We also saw a little egret wading in a local creek, although he was too far away for my camera to cope well.  We had some excitement the other week when we spotted three goldfinches in the hazel tree in one go!

Easter Monday brought April rain that was much needed, but kept us indoors all day.  This did mean that I finally had time to start my patchwork cushion.  If it works out, I will post a picture...