Joys of Spring

Oh JessM - wish I could take your soon to be orphaned roses off your hands. Isn't there really somewhere else you could put them instead of the green bin. .

We have some snowdrops out in our garden.

Yes well if you are not well then you will be a bit aimless.
I have a plan to get rid of 3 rose bushes .... one because my rose bed is just congested (DH, In David Austen gardens "cant we have just one more"...)
and 2 cos the wall they are against is just too darn dry and shady.
But will have to wait for green bins to be emptied

That got me out for a bit of snipping jess - rather aimlessly I have to say, but my heart wasn't in it - so my under-gardener didn't have any work to do at all. ! I ended up looking forlornly at my empty rain gauge. I want something to measure and record, dammit...

You will be glad to know I did the grown up thing and picked up all my thorny twigs. Very grateful to the council for those big green wheely garden waste bins.
It is a bit unnerving all this herbaceous stuff that hasn't properly died back.
Garden now looks more like a proper winter garden with just a couple of teeny peeping spring things. Except the darn grass needs cutting.

ENOUGH already garden!
The first 2 crocuses out. A pulmonaria and a grape hyacinth peeping.
Warm weather and a teeny bit of sun in the garden got me out with secateurs and loppers. Off with your heads fuschia and roses. You've had your run of luck. You're starting to look terribly wrong.
Now the lawn is strewn with debris and the under gardener has, strangely, not appeared. I think I must have had someone wealthy in my family tree that had picker uppers following them around. And i got that gene in a double dose.
I would much prefer to carry on lopping. So much more fun than picking up prickly stuff...

bagitha and Jess

A perky
Robin Redbreast
Perches patiently
Upon the roof of
Bloshy cat's apartment.
Rory enjoys his brunch -
After which
He sits upon
The doormat -
Washes himself
With the utmost care -
And leaves the perky bird
No more than
A leap away
To finish off the scraps.

Frisky squirrels.

I'm expecting to have to return to the Joys of Winter, butty. It's just that all these bloody southerners with their mild weather spurred me on , and there are early signs of spring, even here, though the general dampness keeps things feeling cold. Mind you, our back door moat ran dry merely damp today. It'll rain again tomorrow.

This thread has gladdened my heart!
Jess - what a sight you gave me from 'your' lake.

I have posted a thread about a sunshine emoticon - hope you'll all vote for one.

bagitha - Had a great picture of you with torch in the deep dusk.

I'm not quite ready to leave the Joys of Winter yet - the weather forecast is promising a very nippy few days to come.

I have heard foxes doing a bit of preliminary barking. Not yet really letting rip, though.

I love your description of 'sturdily leaved' bags.

Another Joy of Spring.....my first seed catalogue arrived this morning!

I love tufted ducks!

Saw a pair of robins courting this morning, and the eider ducks are chattering...

Oh you devil - do your really think it is time...? I was wondering today... It was so warm as i jogged along, dressed for the summer...
This is what it was like out there today:

Brief beams of golden midday sun
Low in the mild January sky
Light the white pinions of tufted duck
The bellies of gulls
The throats of swans
And the brows of coots, on the lookout for love
Bring colour to glittering heads of drakes
Golden reed beds and firework flares of dogwood:
Ash, lime, amber, orange, crimson.
Above
A buzzard struggles to hover
A high flock of lapwing swirls
And a smudge of rainbow
Surprises

(sorry about the unpoetic tufted duck. i hoped they might be goldeneyes but not according to the bird bible... )