Silent Sunday

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  Coaltit

Six on Saturday

Today finds us in our first day of full lock-down here in Ireland. We were in partial lock-down before this but now it is just out for shopping and exercise (and no more than 2km from your house for the later).Thankfully we are lucky to have a big garden for the children to play. And we have had sunshine! That means the crocuses are open!

1 Crocus display

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2. The crocus have attracted a couple of early garden bumblebees – I am so happy to see the bees back. A sure sign of spring.

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3. Tulips are open – only a couple so far.

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4. I have one small patch of wild wood anemone under one of the hedgerows. I love this flower, so delicate.

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5. On the heather another bee – this time a buff-tailed bumble. If you look closely you can see little mites on her. These don’t do her any harm, they are found in her hibernating nest and keep the place clean!

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6. And finally, buds on the cherry tree.

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Thank you to The Propagator for hosting Six on Saturday.

Welcome back pollinators!

Some of our wild pollinators are back. We have been seeing the odd bumblebee flying over the last few days but today was a lovely sunny day and I actually got some photos. Nothing stops the spring.

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  Early Bumblebee on dandelion

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  Buff tailed bumblebee on Willow

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  Drone flies on coltsfoot

Altacooney River, Co Mayo

The Altacooney River winds it way through bog and conifer plantations. A perfect place for a peaceful walk.

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Happy Mothers Day

To all the mums out there, today is Mother’s day in Ireland. Wishing you all a great day. A photo from the archives to celebrate.

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Six on Saturday

Getting a little bit done in the garden as the weather improves, but the rain has returned for today. Hope everyone is keeping well and sane in these strange times. It is a time to be really grateful for our gardens.

1 – Some cheery crocus to start this week. Photos taken yesterday in the sunshine. These are some of my bargain buys from earlier in the year.

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  Crocus

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  Crocus

2 – Anemone blanda I think – don’t seem to be as many as last year.

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3 – Dandelions – where there is dandelions pollinators should not be far behind. I saw one queen bumblebee in flight yesterday and one hoverfly, but it is still pretty cool here. And looking like it will only get above 10 degrees on one day of next week.

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  Dandelions

4 – Leaves are appearing on the crab apple tree. Always one of the first to come out.

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5 – Some of the tadpoles have hatched. Their hatching was followed by a morning of frost which had a layer of ice on the pond so I hope most of them survived the freezing. There is no shortage!

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6 – And finally Junior. This handsome fellow has been with us for a good few years, but we found him dead in the chicken coop yesterday. He had shown no sign of being ill, was a good weight, so we think he may have had a heart attack. He will be missed as he was always a friendly cockerel. We have a couple of his sons and one will get to take over his reign. This photo was taken a few weeks ago on a cold and frosty morning.

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Thank you to The Propagator for hosting Six On Saturday

I nearly forgot…….

And thank you to Eliza for reminding me – we have reached the spring equinox. Thankfully nothing will stop the spring….

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  Primroses

With spring comes hope.