Spring arrives in Northamptonshire a few weeks earlier than is does here in Leicestershire.
We visited my dad on Wednesday this week. For a while the sun shone brightly and the wind (which would by early evening begin to batter the UK with strong storms) was gentle and balmy.
Dad is regularly visited by large number and variety of garden birds, but on Wednesday the old apple tree had a family of 11 (yes, eleven) magpies flitting between it and the hedges!
Mum used to love a walk around the garden in spring, watching the various spring blooms coming out. So I took some photos in remembrance of her:
Aconites, Snowdrops and miniature Cyclamen nestle under the hedge.
An array of crocus, soon to be joined by Narcissus.
Shy Primroses have self seede between the path and house wall and are weeks ahead of the rest of the primroses in the garden.
Vibernum blossom, dainty and scented.
Magnolia buds, soft and velvety.
More spring blooms in the corner by the shed.
When we were small my sister and I would pick spring flowers for mum from the woods in the grounds where we lived. When Mothering Sunday came early in the year we would pick tiny posies of spring flowers, our favourites being Violets.
Nice garden to walk around there, Magpies seem to get everywhere ATM though we seem to be getting a few more starlings raiding the food that gets put out. I used to give my mum daffodils on mothering Sunday, she found out to her horror I picked them from the ones she planted in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI love magpies. Like other Corvidae they are very handsome birds and extremely intelligent. As carnivores they do a great job cleaning up but unfortunately also, I believe, eat the eggs laid by garden birds. We get Jays in our garden, sometimes, too.
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