Great Expectations

16/17 May: The theme for this week is great expectations. The week started well with some lovely weather and then it turned to rain and strong winds. Even the ducks have gone into hiding!

Everything, including me, has great hopes of the summer to come. So many large buds are sitting tentatively and teasingly waiting for their moment in the sun. Peonies, poppies, alliums, iris are all poised to burst out. But, despite looking so promising, very few flowers have opened this week.

The deep pink magnolia, cherry armagowa and lilac all look a little weather beaten, even though they are in full flower and the gusty winds have finished off the last of the tulips.

Over the weekend, in between showers, the garden was quickly full of butterflies, bees and birds all looking for something to eat before the rain started again. More pairs of orange tipped butterflies could be see flitting very quickly from plant to plant. I spotted this pair of mating dragonflies on the wood anemones.

Mr & Mrs Great Tit have been flitting in and out of their nest in the eaves constantly this week with mouths full of food. It’s been like a baton race. All of the birds seem to be enjoying the lighter nights with full evening chorus cracking off about 8.30pm every evening as the heron does its nightly fly round. The water in the river is too high and fast for the ducks this week so hopefully they’ll be back next week.

The fruit and veg are doing ok though. The extra water doesn’t seem to be going amiss there. The peas and potatoes are shooting up and the strawberries are in flower already. I even managed yesterday to harvest enough salad leaves for lunch. It's not all bad even on a wet day!