Busy garden

Look who's nesting in our garden! We have an extractor fan by the back door. It doesn't work, and never has. One of the vent covers on the outside is missing, and the other day we realised that some friends had decided that it was a Des-Res! We had a quick peek while Mom & Dad were out and two little mouths opened wide - so we skedaddled and left them alone. We have been able to watch from the kitchen as the parents fly back and forth all day long with beaks full of worms. It's SO cute!
It's spring, don't you know, and so all over the garden things are happening. Not just in the nesting department. The apples are in blossom - nothing quite like apple-blossom, is there?
Except for Garden-Boy's favourite flower, the cornflower. We have lots. He would happily let them take over the entire garden.
And how can you not love these bright, cheery, colourful flowers! Tulips may just be my favourite flower. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em!
And so, after months of neglect I am back in gear and doing some serious gardening. I have been weeding the flower-beds thoroughly, which is a Big Deal. We have Snowberries (what's their official name? I don't know. They have white berries about the size of large blueberries, and they send up runners/suckers everywhere. Leave them alone and they will take over your garden). We have been trying to get rid of them, which is not easy. It takes a lot of digging and vigilance. They come up through the grass, through the plants you actually want, everywhere. And then there's couch grass and creeping buttercups... I am a Bad Gardener. It hasn't been pretty.

But I am trying to remedy this. I think, like the robins, I am suddenly in the midst of an irrepressible urge to tend things. Not my children, of course, who are still being raised according to the benign neglect/free range method. But my garden... weeding, digging out unwanted bushes and stones, digging in sand and compost, planting lovely perennials, sowing seeds (everything from gourds, tomatoes and peas to butterfly-friendly flowers that came with the latest issue of National Geographic Kids). It's looking a lot better, but there is still a long way to go.

And I MUST get those strawberries in! But first, of course, I need to finish weeding the veggie patch and dig in all that sand and manure! Urg. And the pea seedlings are ready to be planted up the yet-unconstructed wigwam...

So to distract you (and me) from those unfinished jobs, here's a bedtime serenade from Spike: