Unfurling...

A day for catching up with all the jobs I've been ignoring all week - including a trip to the tip (nasty - but they do recycle most things) and an impromptu trip to a garden centre (much nicer) where I bought two fine rhubarb plants and some perennials to fil lin gaps resulting from the cold winter.

My arms eased up enough to allow me to dig a fair bit of the vegetable patch. We're going to plant up one bed with rhubarb and raspberries - the other will be used for a selection of particularly tasty vegetables that are not too prone to slug or snail damage!

The sun came out after lunch - what a difference it makes! I took the dogs for a walk through two of our local woods. The ground flora is developing fast, with sheets of dog's mercury, bluebell and ramsons, peppered with the flowers of primrose, wood anemone, sweet violet, early dog-violet and lesser celandine.

Most of the shrubs are getting their leaves - I especially liked these backlit hazel leaves unfurling from their buds, with all the fringing hairs forming a silvery halo and the spider web thread adding a touch of gold.

It was such a lovely day that I walked further than I'd planned. I heard the first chiff-chaff of the year, and watched territorial squabbles between great tits and a group of greater spotted woodpeckers The sun was setting on the way back, and all the birds were singing inlcuding a particularly melodious song thrush in the top of an ash tree - a perfect spring dusk.