Bank Holiday weekend

What a glorious day it's been! In fact the whole weekend has been lovely with only a light period of drizzle yesterday. As you know from yesterday's post, most of the weekend was taken up with preparations for Chickpea's birthday - cleaning, cake making, food shopping - but I also managed to slip in some gardening. On Saturday I potted on some of the plants which had started to outgrow their containers. The petunias are really ready for planting out but I want to be sure the chance of frost has gone first - can you believe I still had to scrape ice off my car windscreen one day this week?

The courgettes are coming along nicely as are the sugar snap peas and carrots. Still no sign of the thyme or yellow beans though.

Today I did more serious gardening and dug over the border where I'll be planting the peas. I also dug up a large clump of crocosmia near the house and am hoping no bulbs were left behind - it's a complete menace, spreads itself everywhere and is taking over in quite a few places in the garden. I would probably have done more but my back was starting to ache and I didn't want to push it.

Time for a cup of tea and to admire the cherry which is just starting to blossom. By next weekend I think it'll be in full bloom. Look at that sky - not a cloud!

While I was sat with my brew, I noticed a hoverfly, er, hovering nearby and remembered a photo by Nina from Tabiboo that I'd been admiring that morning. Out with the camera and here's what  I managed - not as good as Nina's but insects are hard!

In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk to pursue an idea for one of the Scavenger Hunt themes for May. It took me down this footpath next to the golf course which I've never walked down before. Lots of birds were singing and darting about. I spotted some chaffinches and blue tits but they were just too quick.

And then I got lucky and a long-tailed tit came fluttering down the hedge and posed right next to me. Such sweet faced little birds.

I also managed to catch these two goldfinches purely by chance - pointing the camera in the vague direction I'd seen some fluttering and hoping for the best! We hardly used to see goldfinch in this area but there are quite a few flocks around at the moment for some reason.

There were lots of small tortoiseshell and cabbage white butterflies about too but I was thrilled to see this peacock - the first of the year. I had to creep up ever so quietly and then wait patiently for it to open its wings.

After taking the Scavenger Hunt photo - one down, eleven to go! - rather than heading back the way I came, I decided to go via the wooded walk I took you on last week to see how much had changed.

This is more or less the same shot as last time: much greener though still lots more to come.

There were more flowers around, like these forget-me-nots.

And some white bluebells amongst the blue and the nettles - had to be very careful taking this one! Well, I think they're white bluebells - my flower guides are getting a good workout at the moment!

There were also drifts of golden celandines glowing in the dappled sunlight.

And the stream was sparkling and dancing in the sun too. 

On the way home I passed by the house selling honey. I actually remembered to call in last week and we've been having our teaspoon of pale golden Lancashire honey every day. The guy selling it said we were a bit late for it to have an effect on our hayfever as you're meant to take it through the winter to keep your body in touch with pollen. However, we're giving it a go and I'll give you an update later in the summer if I remember.

And that's it, a lovely bank holiday weekend almost over. Not much crafting went on, though I did finish my Elizabeth Wall quilt and will share that with you as soon as I've put some words around the pictures. I also have more flower photos as there were just too many to show here. Plus a duckling update :-)

For now though, as I missed it last night because of the party, I'm off to catch up on Once Upon a Time with a glass in hand. x