April

At the moment I can hardly bear to come inside, or to go to work, or to do anything which takes me away from the garden.  Everything is growing: seedlings, perennials, bindweed, chicks.  The sun is warm, the grass is green.  I want to stop time and hold on to the moment but, since Professor Brian Cox himself says you can't - something about the Arrow of Time. I thought I understood it when he was speaking but it is gone, like so much  in my over full brain - my inadequate camera will have to do.


I plant tubs of tulips every year.  Last year was the first year I have ever been really pleased with them.  That was largely as a result of admiring some gorgeous pots in mountainear's garden and discovering that she used far more bulbs than I did.  This years are even better.


Out in the field the little orchard is looking more orchard like and these tiny tulips, tulipa linifolia, are spangling the grass before the wild flowers get going.  I love them.  They make my heart lift.



The cherry blossom in out in the orchard. 


The wild cherry is almost identical with just a little more delicacy in the flower.


The Light Sussex chicks which Ian hatched in the incubator, patiently turning the eggs three times a day, have gone outside today, leaving their cardboard box for the small run in the lush grass of the kitchen garden.


Here is the rogue black one, the classic black sheep, ugly duckling, odd one out.  I do hope it is a hen but it is too soon for us to tell.  They huddled in the house when moved outside, looking out through the pophole at the big world beyond.  Slowly, one by one, they ventured out for food and water and when I went to shut the popholes tonight they were all hanging about in the run like children reluctant to go inside.   Perhaps the freedom had gone to their heads.  The older hens in their own shed were already neatly lined up on their roost.


I love to see hens pecking about outside but it will be a while before the new chicks are let out of their run.  We have buzzards overhead here every day, wheeling slowly, mewing and soaring on the thermals, hunting the valley.  The chicks need to be a good deal bigger before they stop being a possible target for hunting buzzards.

There is so much to do.  It is good to stop, look, feel the sun on your shoulders watch chickens for a while.

Comments

  1. I know just how you feel about everything growing so fast outside. I am torn between all those things that need to be done outside, and the inside jobs, most of which are equally important, and I find myself rushing in and out in fits of indecision about priorities!

    Pomona x

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  2. Oh yes - am drawn outside by an invisible force. Once there, however much I want to sit and drink all in I find myself fingers in the earth (how warm it is) touching and tweaking, delving and probing. This season is an assault on all the senses. How good it is.

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  3. Your garden shames me. As I tip toe through the world of retail, gaining experience, the name given to all mistakes, the weeds in my garden rampage, unfettered by any sort of horticultural interference whatsoever. Do come and do mine.
    Adorable puppy and grandchild - thought not necessarily in that order!

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  4. Love the Tulips, especially the ones in the pots, what a glorious array of colours.

    Agree about the chicken watching too, I currently spend at least 2 hours a day sitting on the lawn talking to hens, who come over and babble and coo at me, giving my fingers and toes an occasional peck to make sure they arent a worm. Tonight they tried to eat my Gardens Illustrated, I think they thought the photo looked lush! I am thinking about getting some more too.

    Next week, I have some chaps coming to implement stage 1 of the revised garden plan, so looking forward to getting my long drawn plans built at last.

    Decided to follow your example too, and have allocated an area for cutting flowers at the lottie, mostly glads, dahlias and a few sweet peas.

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  5. Love the chicks. And yes, if we only could slow down April. Much as I love it, I feel in a perpetual state of rising panic about seeds not pricked out, plants not potted on, seeds not sown. Plans always exceed execution. By August all will be slow and calm again

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  6. I just love the little babies before they turn into gawky teenagers with those ugly pin feathers. What a wonderful time of year this is.

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  7. There's beauty all around you there, so I can understand perfectly why you wouldn't want to leave the outdoors. Your Tulips look fantastic and the meadow is looking very pretty.

    Those chicks are just drop dead gorgeous little things. So cute.

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  8. Your lovely post is full of sunshine and happiness.
    Enjoy every minute of the warm weather and beauty it brings!
    Happy Easter
    Chrisartist

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  9. Wish I could have crawled into each and every photo. Spring is not nearly as much of an event in the American Southwest, and bulbs don't do well here. I so miss my crocus and tulips and iris...thanks for sharing yours.

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  10. I couldn't agree more Elizabeth. It has been blissful hasn't it? We are having a pottering day at home today as we have been out and about for most of the holidays, and I am so excited about the chance to garden! x

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  11. So envious. In Chicago it's still too cold to risk planting anything and it's pouring. Pah!

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  12. Love those chicks. I do hope the black one turns out to be a hen. We find that an early way to sex them is to look at their combs - the cockerels always begins to grow after a vdery short time.

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  13. Pomona - outside is winning here! Inside is shouting but has the disadvantage of being dust based, not earth based and so can perhaps be made to wait.

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  14. Mountainear - you and me both about the invisible force! And yes, the earth is warm, maybe a bit dry but just a little rain would be perfection.

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  15. I love the photo of the orchard with the tulips. It looks perfect. Now I can't wait to see what it will look like with the wild flowers.

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  16. Another one here who can't bear to do anything that isn't in the garden. I am full of envy for your beautiful tulips. I just had to dig up all my Sarah Raven Venetian tulips because of tulip fire.

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  17. I agree, it's so wonderful to be outside this time of the year! Your flowers are beautiful! Hope those old buZzards stay far away from the sweet chicks!!

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  18. I was busy thinking of the danger of hunting foxes. I hadn't considered buzzards, although they are much more common around Derbyshire than they used to be.

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  19. Fred - your shop looks utterly wonderful. It is a good job I am not closer or I would certainly be poorer!
    Zoe - I have got a bit carried away with the cutting garden this year. Last year it was disappointing, apart from the sweetpeas, so this year it has been restructured and I have trays full of all sorts waiting to go out. Sure yours will be great, your things usually are!

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  20. Sue - ah I do identify with the sense of panic. I have that and no mistake but am trying hard to enjoy as well as rush about at the speed of light!
    MBJ - the chicks have come through the gawky ugly phase now and are starting to look like mini Light Sussex hens. I think they will be rather fine!

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  21. Bernie - hi and welcome. I was talking to my 92 year old father in law today about a whole area of his industrial northern town which fifty years ago was all hen pens for ordinary people. How quickly we have lost our connection with our food.
    Chris - happy Easter to you too. The seasons are turning in a different direction for you down there I suppose!

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  22. MsCaroline - I wonder what your gardening life might be like in Seoul, if there is any? Would love to know!
    Pipany - a pottering day at home is an immense luxury. Enjoy it!
    EPM - I have always rather envied some of my US based friends' very different seasons. You know - when it's winter it snows and when it's summer it bakes - but maybe I should be more grateful for my temperate softness over here!

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  23. Weaver - hmm, that might mean that one of the ones I hoped was a hen is actually a cockerel! Damn!
    Nora - Thank you. It has been something in my head for so long, and I have been so apologetic when showing it to people, it rather overwhelms me when others say they like it!
    PM - I live in fear of tulip fire as I have so many. I had rather stupidly begun to persuade myself that maybe Welsh gardens were somehow immune to it. Clearly not (and what a dumb idea anyway). Do you have to go without entirely for a while?

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  24. Donna and H - you wouldn't immediately think of buzzards as a hazard for chicks would you? Soon these ones will be big enough to cope!

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  25. I'm not sure what I love more, the sparkling red of the tulips in the grass or the sight of new chickens exploring the world. A glorious time of year.

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  26. wow!..This flowers are very nice and colorful. I love tulips flower. This chickens are looking beautiful. Nice to read this blog. Thanks for this great blog.

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