This was no tiptoe through the tulips…

……more of a dive into the daffodils.

* What was the ‘this’ you ask? It was a Big Day Out with the inimitable Arabella Sock**, yes, she of the 100% cashmere loveliness. So we took a walk in the park, Nymans gardens to be exact which is approximately half way between our respective abodes.

We could not have asked for better weather; the sun shone strongly,  the sky was blue & spring was springing up everywhere.

    I have never seen so many fritillaries before; an indication of it being just the perfect place for them. Photos can not do the mass of them any justice. There were several ancient wisteria preparing to burst into flower & an interesting use of field beans in the bare beds which were waiting to be planted up with summer flowering plants.

It is difficult to be critical about a garden on such a gloriously sunny spring day when so much is bursting into life & the birds are singing their socks off so I abandoned any small critical faculties I possess, didn’t really think about it & just enjoyed the day.

*No animal was hurt in the taking of this photo & I have the written permission of the body in question.

** I am sure that Ms Sock will have already posted an erudite & witty entry on her blog by the time I get this finished

I’ve made my Chelsea bed so now…….

Last July I wrote about my delusions of grandeur as I attempted to translate some Chelsea box clouds into my own little patch of SW19. I had only got as far as planting the box balls & all that remained of the original planting was a rose vaguely positioned towards the middle of the bed & a runty clump of sedum towards the back.

It was all planted up in the early autumn & I tried oh so hard to keep the planting fairly simple & limited. Here are some spring views taken on different days towards the end of March.