Garden Progress, Weather, General Catch Up

The Deenery

Please click to enlarge any photographs.

I've been so busy blogging visitors that I haven't been able to show much else.

Garden and Land

Jim and I have both been busy outside, when the weather has allowed. We have had quite a few good days, or parts of days. Today, for example, we've had several hail storms but managed to get quite a lot done at the bottom of the orchard. There is a patch of woodland at the very bottom, mostly full of Aspen trees but with some Spruce, one horse chestnut and a lovely beech. There is also a patch of gooseberry and current bushes, which were very entangled with stinging nettles and brambles. Jim tackled the brambles today and I tackled the nettles and brambles. We ended up with 3 big piles of rubbish!

The other job I have been tackling on and off is at the bottom of the Fairy Hill. The builders had bashed into the bed there with the digger and the soil kept spilling over the road. I have stabilised it with some good sized rocks and it's beginning to look better:


It looks a bit wobbly in the middle, but that's where my 'joiner' isn't quite in line. Once I get a few rockery plants dangling over the wall, it'll look much better.

The more I worked, the soggier it all became:

So today I left it to drain before I carry on.

Jim and I have also made a new flower bed up by the gate. There was always a scruffy patch of grass there, so we dug that up and I made a rock edge then we filled it with several barrow loads of our own compost. It looks a bit bare at the moment but things will grow! We have 3 acers in there and the central plant was already there, in the middle of the grass.

Here it is. There is an existing bed behind it already so we just tagged this one on.

As you can see, lots of daffodils are out. Unfortunately, some of them suffered with the wind, hail and snow but there are still plenty left:
Dashed daffodils.
After one of the hail storms, the sun came out and shone on the melted droplets.

Here there are droplets on the acer too. We transplanted this one from our former back garden rockery - now completely gone!

The Spring flowers are making an effort to bloom, in spite of the odd wintry showers. The pretty primula 'Wanda' is always a favourite:

There are primroses and celandine and today I noticed some violets by the stream.
Sorry it's a little blurred.

The first rockery tulips are now out too:


The stream itself has been flowing well:

Weather

Hail
It hurts when it lands on your head.


CloudsI took this joiner from just outside our gate when the sky was particularly varied. It's a bit 'wobbly' in the middle. The water is, of course, Lough Graney.

Snow



Jim brought this snowball in from the garden one evening!

We've had the lot - even some sun!


I think that's enough for one day. Tomorrow I will show some inside shots including our beautiful Amish Quilt and my latest Rag Rug - made for our new bedroom.

I hope everyone is have a lovely Easter. We are.