It’s officially the first day of spring today and despite a few wet days, it is finally beginning to feel like spring! I had a wander round our garden today and although it is in desperate need of a tidy up, there’s quite a bit of colour out there.

I’ve been getting somewhat despondent with the garden over the last month as I’ve been so busy trying to sort the house out I haven’t had chance to get in the garden at all, so it does need a seriously big tidy up. It doesn’t help that next-door are changing the boundary fence, so there’s areas I can’t tidy up until they’ve finished, although I have to say, what they’ve done so far is looking very nice. I’ve already told them I’ll be growing lots of climbers up it! I’m also completely redesigning a large area and I’m about half way through clearing it, I have organised for some young muscles to come and help which should make a big difference.

Daffodils always make a garden look springy, I’ve got big ones and little ones, I find the little ones stand up to the weather much better, I’ve also got quite a few highly scented ones, the perfume wafts around the garden.

The first camellia flower came out today, it’s alovely soft red colour, what I think might be called carmine red. I’ve bought a couple more camellias this year on Otley market as they do seem to like our soil. The magnolia stellata is just about to come into flower, it’s one of my favourite shrubs in the garden, it looks fabulous when it’s in full flower. I’ve a miniature flowering cherry too, it’s only about 12″ tall, so you can imagine how tiny the flowers are, it’s very pretty and delicate.

I’ve three hellebores near the pond with lots of flowers on, they’re not easy to photograph as all the blooms point downwards, so I literally pointed the camera upwards from underneath and hoped for the best, I think they’ve come out pretty well.

A few years ago I bought a Jack Frost Brunnera at the Harrogate show, it’s done really well and the foliage is just appearing now, it is covered with forget-me-not type flowers in early summer. Pulmonaria self seed themselves all over the garden, they get a bit tatty late in the season but the flowers are really pretty at the moment.

We’ve got lots of workmen coming in over the next few days, so I’m hoping to be able to escape into the garden for a bit, weather permitting, if not I think I’ll have a potter in my sewing room…