Aflutter

As I was taking this picture, to give you the context of my more usual close ups of flowers, a small group of jackdaws took flight across the garden. If you look closely you will find five black shapes, mid flight, with their shadows following them on the lawn. 

They have just swooped out from the bird feeding tree you can see at the very left. This holds many delicious things; fat balls, mealworms, peanuts, mixed seed, soggy bread and our wind chimes. Just opposite it across the path is the water bowl/bird bath in which the starlings, sometimes more than one, take excitable baths, or leisurely drinks, along with other birds when they can get a look in. The smaller birds avail themselves of the little cascade that ripples it's way into the pond, looking rather unglamorous at the bottom of the picture under its cover  - very necessary for heron visits!

The image shows our rear garden, dropping away down the hill behind the house, narrowing slightly as it goes. You can just see the roof of the greenhouse in the "kitchen garden" which sits below and behind the yew tree. Beyond this productive space there is the Dell where the badgers dwell; left wild for their delight, apart from an apple and plum, planted about five years ago. Beside the pond is an old stump, now support for honeysuckle, jasmine and clematis, on the opposite side our smart new shed and just behind the camellia, a trellis panel which forms the boundary of the new seating area we had made between the two sheds this time last year, before we knew how precious our garden was about to become as a space for musing during the impending lockdown.

So, this top bit is where you'll find hellebore nestled beneath the rhododendron

a ribbon of daffodils catching the sunlight as it peeps over the roof of the house

and pulmonaria, so vivid with their varied flowers and spotty leaves

Above, in one of the many trees that line our plot, Columbus the crow stands guard, shouting at the cats or foxes, or at his fellow crows in oaks at the other side of what was once a farmer's field but is now five gardens. What does he know of gardens, other than what he can find to eat in them?

The rescue camellia is doing well this year; one of four we have now

and the grape hyacinths are bubbles of blue beneath the yew.

Meanwhile in the front garden, always full of sun, the first of the pasque flowers are opening their purple blooms, so their shining yellow eyes can greet the rising sun on Easter morning,

My little corner of colour is shimmering; the soft blue grape hyacinth provide a lovely contrast with the singing colours behind them and the gentle yellow of the primroses

another ribbon of daffodils provides nodding spots of captured sunlight, now they have opened beneath the weeping birch

a double celandine is a little spot of wild yellow by the fence

the tulips, given us by a friend as a wedding gift three years ago are ready to burst into bloom

and, just by the front door, a delightful shadow echo provides brief pleasure before, with my late mother in law's warning in my ears ("one year's seeding, seven years weeding") I nipped it off to save myself later effort!

Happy Easter to you and yours, I hope the season brings you pleasure.