Boston

We made a quick trip to Boston, it is a very interesting place.

This is the church tower, it is called The Stump, but, I am afraid I do not know why!





You can climb to near the top.
The stairs are extremely narrow and there are two sets, one for going up and one for going down.

Bluebells

I love bluebells.
The fabulous colour, the way they hang on their stalks and the scent that wafts on a warm breeze.

Today I went to acres of woods filled with bluebells. Despite the not perfect weather, it was glorious. 

Oak Tree

There is  a weather saying 
"If the oak before the ash, then we'll only have a splash, if the ash before the oak, then we'll surely have a soak"
Silly me, only took a photo today of the oak with its slight show of very new yellow green leaves. Probably because it looked so lovely and the ash have no signs of green.
Let's hope we do get a good summer this year.



There were lots of birds enjoying small insects in the branches.
Also down nearer the ground were lots of 'garden' birds including a male and female blackcap.




He was singing away, I do like their song.



A picture of the ash tree twigs, showing slight signs of spring buds beginning to burst.

Spring Blossom

Beautiful spring blossom of the palest pink, set against the azure blue sky, how gorgeous!

I think it is a flowering cherry, it looks divine, however, has no fruit.

A Lot Of Weather

Today we had a lot of weather; we had sleet, hail, rain, lots of wind, some sun, some fluffy white clouds, however, we did not seem to get much warmth.

Late in the afternoon after yet another 'wintry' shower, we had a lovely rainbow.

Cuckoo

The weather this week is going to be very varied, or so the weather forecasters predict. 
Predominantly cold, with some rain, or sleet, or sun, or wind or maybe all of the above. 
So it was a bit of a surprise this morning that I heard the cuckoo!
The swallows are here as are the house martins and the cuckoo is indeed another one of natures joys that make us believe that summer is on its way.

This is NOT a photo I took, seeing a cuckoo and taking a picture is a pretty hard thing to do.




Cuckoos are interesting as they arrive here for the summer breeding season. To find a mate they make the iconic 'cuckoo' sound. Then the females lay their eggs in other birds' nests, and that is their parenting done. 
When it hatches the cuckoo chick will heave any other eggs out of the surrogate parents nest and then demand food from both its adopted parents until it is fully fledged, when it will head off to warmer climes with no adult to show it the way!!! 

Similarities

Two more places that bear, what I consider, more than a passing resemblance to each other, shame I did not do a better job with the views. Sorry.

The top one in both sets is Bruges and the town in the lower photos is Boston.

Both linked through the wool trade and the Hanseatic League. Hanseatic_League

Lavender Linen

Cool and luscious, this is gorgeous linen with a hand painted lavender flowers design.
I would love a pillow made with this print.





With curtains to match, so dreamy.

Flat Lands Comparisons

Here are a few photos of south Florida and the Fens, can you decide which is which?

More Plum Blossom

Most of the plum blossom has gone, however, there is just a little left on these trees. 

If the bees do their job and the weather is kind we should get some delicious purple plums later in the year.

It is good that something so pretty can become something so yummy.

Peacock Butterfly on Plum Blossom

Assume that this peacock butterfly is gathering some nectar from the plum blossoms ready for a mating/laying of eggs on the prolific nettles that we have round here.

Sadly a few peacock butterfly caterpillars do not make much impact on the number of nettes.

Still Daffodils

It seems hard to believe, we had daffodils out in January and there are still daffy's about now, in April!

Plant Recycling

For dinner we ate one of the spaghetti squash we grew last summer. 
These are brilliant, they last in the pantry for months and are so delicious with all sorts of dishes.

After we had eaten I took some of the seeds ready to sow this year! They are now in some soil inside the little greenhouse to give them a little warm start.

I hope we get a really good crop this summer.

Fabulous Sunset

After the rather grey day yesterday, today was splendid. Warm and sunny and we did so much gardening.
I have a little plastic greenhouse and planted some seeds in trays in there as it was so warm, tomatoes, pumpkins, spaghetti sqyas, oh and some super early runner beans, I know they should not be planted until next month, but, it was so delightful I couldnt resist, let's hope they do well.

Some days everything just comes together to make a fabulous sunset,
This is one of them and it just kept going.

You Choose

It was rather grey out today so I picked some forsythia and japonica flowers to cheer things up.


Then I played with the photo in PS.
Which do you prefer?

A bit grungy?


A lot grungy





Or just grunge and black and white?

Mr. Fox.

Roald Dahl would have us believe that a fox is fantastic!

They do have their place, this one was down the end of the field, I spied him in the undergrowth.



He is rather handsome.


Later I saw him up at the edge of the field, hope he did not find any pheasant nests.



He certainly looks well fed.

Native Animals

Saw these lovely hares, I do love hares.

Early in the morning they were sitting almost in a line down the track (receding hare line).




Later they moved into the field. Still quite a distance and a bit of a challenge for the camera lens.






But aren't they fabulous?

This IS In Colour

Delicate shades of cream, white, yellow and green.
It almost looks black and white.




Reminds me a little of this Georgia O'Keefe painting.

Amarilis

We bought an amaryllis bulb last winter. 
I do love amaryllis flowers, especially the white and pink ones that are such similar colours to apple blossom. Our amaryllis bulb put up splendid leaves which looked lush and green however, no flower emerged.
This year the waiting has paid off and 2 flower heads began to grow both with 4 flowers on.

Three Eco Systems

On the left the cypress swamp,
In the centre the prairie.
On the right a pine hammock.