Nuthatched

Nuthatch activity in and out of the nestbox suggests that their eggs have hatched and they're feeding the little ones.  This has been going on for a good couple of weeks now, so I would expect them to leave the nest soon, but there's no sign of the youngsters yet.  They're probably in no hurry to leave such a safe place; the nestbox is terracotta, and the parents have customised it with mud sealing up the inspection holes, so it must be quite snug as well.  The weather has been cool all month, with some warmish sunshine but a lot of chilly wind and temperatures still in the low teens, so the great outdoors can't seem all that appealing to a small bird!

The baby blackbirds have dispersed, and the parents are presumably now on a second brood, although the female is around more than I would have expected if she were hatching; I hope nothing has happened to her nest.  There has been a single baby sparrow down, though there's much activity around the nest sites.  Lots of other birds; the pair of linnets is still around, also a pair of goldfinches; a long-tailed tit came to the kitchen window one day, and a goldcrest was hunting for spiders round the waste bins; and yesterday a jay turned up and learned how to get onto the peanut container.  The two partridges still come daily; one of them has been sitting on the fleece covering my cabbage plants, which probably explains why they're looking rather squashed.

The cold weather hasn't encouraged me to plant out the runner beans, but I need to do that soon.  The 'Ferrari' and 'Borlotti' beans haven't germinated well, so I may have another go at them; and only one courgette has germinated, so I'll sow a few more.  The leeks were sown late but are now germinating.  I've taken to starting dill and coriander off in the cold frame and planting out, which seems to work quite well; there are a few parsley plants coming along in the same way.

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and planted out those dahlias that are ready to go outside.  'Ambition', despite being a bit shrivelled in storage, was the first up and seems to be doing ok; 'Karma Choc' has done nothing at all.  I rescued two half-price bargains from the garden centre, a 'Bishop of Llandaff' and 'David Howard', and they are now also coming along, a little more slowly.  They've gone into the new border between the patio and the hedge, where I can keep an eye on any undesirable weeds coming up, with the zinnias for company.

'Silver Parrot'

'Purple Jacket' with Bellis

'Creme Upstar' with Anthemis

The tulips are now mostly past, although there are still a few 'Havran' in bloom and also the 'Angelique' and 'Black Hero' pairing in the big pot ('Uncle Tom' also did well here but was mostly over by the time the other two came along).  Most of the tulips in the smaller pots did poorly; too dry, too crowded or too overwhelmed by the wallflowers and forget-me-nots?  'Purple Jacket' was good (if rather more pink than purple), and so were the 'Silver Parrots'; I also liked 'Creme Upstar', although it was rather too delicate and subtle to make much of a statement.  'La Belle Epoque' looked very sickly, and I'm not sure if that was just the colour that it was or whether the poor growth affected it; the flowers lasted hardly any time and I'm not sure I'd grow it again.  'Antraciet' and 'Cairo' were both good, but 'Cairo' flowered much later so the combination didn't really work.  'Veronique Sanson' and 'Jan Reus' never made it up through the wallflowers.  Note to self: the wallflowers pair well with the earlier tulips but are going over by the time the May ones come along, which doesn't enhance the overall effect.

The aquilegias are out, and I'm making a note of the good ones for future use.  Some of the ones grown last year from seed are in flower, and include a purple and white bicolour and a lovely plain cream one; there are also several pink and white bicolours.

I'm steeling myself to pull up the forget-me-nots soon.  I always leave plants until all the flowers are finished, but by then the earlier flowers have seeded, and I have far too many forget-me-nots about the place as it is; so they're for the recycling bin sometime very soon.