Nuthatching

We have a pair of nuthatches nesting in the nestbox.  They're going in and out intermittently, but not often enough to suggest that the eggs have hatched yet - although I did hear cheeping from somewhere down in that corner of the garden the other day.  We're looking forward to seeing the youngsters.  A wren has also been seen collecting moss down at that end of the garden; there were wren families down there last year, so we're hopeful.  The blackbird brood has hatched and the parents are busy collecting food; the apples put out on the patio are gratefully received!  Other wildlife in the garden has included five bullfinches together (three males and two females), a slowworm basking in the veg patch and, less pleasingly, a rat (probably dislodged when a logpile was uncovered).  We're having regular visits from a pair of partridges who enjoy dustbathing in the broad bean patch; deterring them is proving difficult!

After a long period of easterly and northerly winds, and mostly dry but chilly weather, we had a spell of gales from the west, followed by a warm and sunny Easter weekend, and it has been mostly sunny and dry since then.  The sun brought out the butterflies all of a sudden: a peacock, a tortoiseshell and a brimstone (also a few small things that moved too fast for identification).

The gales knocked over the wheelie bin, which had a lot of thin polythene dustsheeting in it; most of this blew away and, although I managed to retrieve some of it, there are shreds of it fluttering from the tops of the ash trees like demented prayer flags.  I hope it breaks down soon.

Camellia 'Donation'

Cowslip patch

The daffodils are fully out, and the tulips are starting; the early yellow ones by the dining room window are 
out and some of the ones in pots are well in bud.  The Epimedium sulphureum is in bloom (I managed to cut the leaves off this year before the flowers came up), as are the Doronicums and Brunnera; the Pulmonaria is coming out, and the lily of the valley is already in bud.  The Camellia 'Donation' in the pot in the front garden is doing beautifully, despite being knocked around a bit by the wind, and the cowslip patch in the lawn (now also boasting a number of primroses and various hybrids) is in full flower.  Meanwhile I'm trying to weed more parts of the veg plot to house the seedlings now coming up in the cold frame, and also to get out as many of the pink geraniums as I can before they take over.  The blackbirds are very appreciative of all the digging!