Glorious Sunday!

What beautiful weather we had in the South today! The warmest day of the year so far, I think we got to 18°c. It was so nice to feel the warm sun on my skin (I was in short sleeves!) and to have the windows open so a breeze flowed through the house. I did three loads of washing and got it all dried on the line too.

I spent about an hour and a half in the garden planting and just watching the wildlife enjoying the weather too. I planted my mini daffodils and some snowdrops in the rockery, to hopefully enjoy next year.

All of the time I was outside there was a Comma butterfly flitting to and from the heather. I took eight photos but only a couple were any good!

Comma butterfly

This could be a dead leaf in the heather!

There were a couple of bees too, a Red-tailed bumblebee and one with a white bottom. I also saw a yellow coloured butterfly and two butterflies dancing around together but I couldn't see what they were. 

Red bottom!

I spent 10 minutes standing still, by the washing line pole, waiting for a robin to feel brave enough to come to the feeders so I could get a photo. The robin teased me, flying from the tree, to the fence, onto the grass but never to the feeders. Just standing, listening I heard the sound of people chattering, a lawn mower starting up, a motorbike whizzing up the hill, a car alarm going off all sounds I wouldn't necessarily have acknowledged if I hadn't been still. Sometimes our lives are so busy and on the go, we forget to stop and listen and take things in. 

A few more photos from the garden today. Blossom in my neighbour's garden.

Daffodil buds.

A lone seven spot ladybird.

My washing blowing in the wind.

Spring is on the way and I can't wait! I hope you've all had a glorious Sunday too!

Making a pond

I've always wanted to have a pond in the garden but my nan didn't like the idea. So, I've made a pond in a bowl, I got the idea from this website. I did it yesterday with my nephew and finished off when my niece got home from school.

Finding the best location. I was going to dig a hole to put the bowl in but decided to stand it on top instead. The rockery hasn't really been touched for many years (apart from a few bits I planted last year) so it's a bit overgrown and has weeds coming through.

My nephew washing the gravel.

The pond in place, ready to be filled.

The finished pond, filled with rain water. I'm not sure how successful it will be but it's good to experiment! I thought, if this doesn't attract any wildlife I will dig a hole in the rockery and use pond liner to make a new pond.

When I tidied up the rockery a bit today, I saw this caterpillar under a rock. It was curled up in a ball and I don't have clue what it is! I had a look online but couldn't find what it is. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

After not seeing many ladybirds last year, I saw a seven spot ladybird on one of the bins yesterday, so hopefully it will be a better year for seeing ladybirds.

Crocheting and flowers

Even though I haven't been doing much crocheting, my granny stripe blanket is now taking shape. I'm pleased with how it's coming on and I'm excited to see how it will look once its finished, that might be a long way off though!

Here is my progress so far.

The pink lupin in the rockery is flowering now and looks lovely.

I don't know what has happened to the red lupin though! It went a bit funny after I bought it but it seems to be perking up a little bit now.

The foxglove isn't flowering yet but seems to be doing well.

I haven't seen any ladybirds yet this year, which is unusual. Last year it was about April when I first saw them and we had quite a few around the garden. I guess it's the late Spring making them later. I haven't seen many butterflies either, just the Large Whites.

I have been busy uploading my mums photos to Flickr now that you get 1 terabyte of storage and unlimited uploads, it's nice to look through the old photos. I will be packing tomorrow to go on holiday on Friday, hopefully I will get to do some posts while I'm away.

Hope you all have a great week!

 

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A beautiful day

It's been a beautiful day, very sunny but also very windy. I have finally put the pots out into the garden from the greenhouse and I managed to take some photos earlier. We have quite a large garden so I will try to get some photos to show the whole garden for another post.

This is the rockery with the pots behind it, the tall flowers on the left of the photo started coming through last year. I've looked in my new wild flowers book and I think they are Columbine. The Lupins and Foxgloves aren't flowering yet but I noticed the slugs have been eating them so I hope they will still flower.

 

 

This is a Gazania Tiger Stripe flower, it's one of my favourites but I prefer the orange ones.

This tree is in our neighbours garden, I think it looks lovely now it's in flower.

And finally, I got a picture of a Red Kite but unfortunately it wasn't very close so I will endeavour to get a better one. I missed a good photo opportunity earlier, when two Red Kites glided past the window as I was looking out.

I have just watched Springwatch in the Afternoon and I'm looking forward to watching the new series of Springwatch, which starts at 8pm tonight on BBC2.

 

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