The April Garden

Suddenly everything is growing in the garden!  The forget-me-nots are out en masse, turning the garden blue.  There is hardly a bare patch of soil showing at this time of year!

The tulips have been putting on a show.  This one is a little more yellow than I expected, but it fades as it ages.

I think this one is New Design.

I have had some of the tulips for so long, that I have forgotten their names!

Queen of the Night.

Not everything in the garden is pretty - inside this tulip a white crab spider had captured a bumble bee.  Interestingly these spiders can change colour to camouflage themselves.

Last year I threw out a lot of my hardy geraniums as they were taking over the garden.  Previous years I had passed them on to friends, so they didn't want any more.  The few that are left are now flowering and no doubt will spread again! :)

This is Mourning Widow.

Often amongst the blue forget-me-nots are a few pink ones,

but this year I seem to have some white flowers.

 Geum rivale.

 My lilac is flowering again this year.  It didn't bloom last year as it was recovering from being pruned.

Cerinthe major Purpurascens sows itself freely around the garden.

 Tiarella

Centaurea montana

Clematis Fragrant Oberon is in bloom by the patio door.

 The wisteria is looking glorious again.

This male Orange-tip butterfly was flitting around the garden this morning.

I seem to have run out of room in my greenhouse!  I have improvised more shelves in the middle by laying canes across from one staging to the other.  I just need the threat of frost to go away and then I can start planting out at the allotment.  Or that maybe my Husband's job as I have injured myself again! Middle-aged or what!?! :)

He has cut the lawn and treated it for moss and weeds, so it will start to look rather sad for a little while.

Roll on summer!

Our Easter

 Our Easter has included an overdose of chocolate! :)  With Fay and Jay home for the holidays I have been making lots of goodies for them.  This ice-cream cake is a favourite of Fay's.

 I baked a chocolate cake and decorated it with a design I had seen on Pinterest.

 Slightly healthier - carrot muffins,

with a chocolate bunny!  Okay, not so healthy! :)

We have been for lots of walks and tested out some of the new exercise trail in the village.

I collected some fallen twigs from one walk and made an Easter bunny wreath.

 Good Friday afternoon we when on a long walk.  Even though we live in a modern village we are surrounded by nature.  Many wild flowers grow beside the paths

and there are copses within the village.

We are fortunate to be able to just step out of our door and into some beautiful woodland beside the village

 and into some stunning countryside.

 The next village even held a surprise for us; we hadn't seen this sculpture before.

 Jay couldn't resist the playground! :)

 Turning back for home we walked through the same woods and made some new discoveries.

 Jay and I stalked this Roe Deer Stag.

 He seemed quite happy that we weren't a threat and carried on munching the trees.

 Beside this ancient route we saw a Druid singing to the trees.  Something I certainly didn't expect!

 I thought this looked like a heart and my Husband thought it looked like a hart!

 We foraged a few leaves of wild garlic for our tea

 and some primroses and violets to crystallize.  The leaves are mint from the garden.

The flowers were for our Simnel cake on Easter Sunday.

 And of course being Easter there had to be more chocolate.

 I filled a nest with chocolate

 and hung some in crocheted baskets on the twig tree.

 Easter Sunday we gave our children their chocolate "egg".  This year, instead of a large egg, I bought lots of smaller treats and wrapped them up in a gift bag for each of them.

I'm back to work tomorrow so that is my holiday over, but Fay and Jay are still going to be here for the rest of the week.

Happy Easter to you all, Pj x