fledgling goldfinches

Around 7.30pm tonight there was a loud tweeting commotion going on at our back yard  feeders - four fledgling goldfinches arrived to get their supper with their doting parents before flying off somewhere safe for the night, I will await their return tomorrow and hope that all four will be enjoying breakfast here too!

I am also hoping for better light tomorrow and an early visit from our window cleaner would be useful too he's only been once this year!

Blackcap

another sign that Spring has arrived!
this morning we had our first sighting of a blackcap this year and one of the best views we have ever had of one here, this male stayed a long time, attracted to the remaining berries on our cotoneaster - hopefully he will keep returning now for more!
these photos were taken through our double glazed windows so apologies for the quality!

lesser redpolls and siskin

I counted seven redpolls around the feeders today, it is great that they are still visiting our feeders, they arrived the week after the big garden bird watch, which of course is typical! - so they have been here for at least six weeks now:)

the siskin arrived around the same time and they too are still visiting, not in the same numbers of the lesser redpoll, but this striking male popped by today too.

pressed garden flowers - second batch

My selection this week includes miniature daffodils - these were originally a gift from my cousin in a sweet little pot for the kitchen window sill, but after they flowered I planted them outside, where they have continued to flower year after year ever since; the first of my hellebores, I love hellebores and they are planted under a hedge on a slight bank so the low sun at this time of year shines through the petals beautifully; the very first sprig of blackthorn flowers from our hedge that was within reaching distance, we have had some in flower for a couple of weeks right at the top behind our utility out of reach which has been frustrating, but now even more has come into flower; a selection of heathers, these have been in flower for a few weeks now and there are plenty more to come; a snake's head fritillary flower, this one came from a pot of them I bought a couple of weeks ago, they have almost finished flowering for already, the ones I have had growing in the garden for a few years are just starting to bud and those in the wild won't be anywhere near flowering yet;  and yet more primulas too, not just primroses this time.

pressed spring flowers

snowdrops and primroses from my garden

now I just have to decide what I am going to do with them!

My first session in the garden this year

I would be the first to admit that my garden had been neglected over the last few months, but the days I had free to be out there we had rain and I like to enjoy my gardening, not consider it a chore, today the sun shone and I had a free couple of hours so I set to!
Before

After

I still have to weed the gravel but that will be another day, I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow and I need to be able to move, so I am not going to over do it today. One huge bumblebee made an appearance - spring is certainly beginning to show itself:)

We nearly missed this - and this just missed us too!

Enjoying a leisurely morning I walked out of kitchen and spotted this crashed hot air balloon. Another half an hour and it would have been packed away without any of us noticing it.
I have no idea how long it had been there but the recovery vehicles were already there when I noticed it. It landed the other side of the common and as a previous post on this blog has already mentioned they do fly over us so I guess we had a lucky miss!!!

Primroses

It may have felt like a very cold long winter but in a small patch of my garden it has been Spring since October! - that is when these primroses started flowering and they are still in flower now!

My original two clumps of primroses had produced numerous seedlings which were growing up through the 'lawn' I use that word very loosely, anyway early last summer I re -positioned some of these seedlings down one side of our small bank and now I have a wonderful show of pale yellow, this year I will plant up the other side and hope to enjoy a similar success in the Autumn.

First day of spring - well and truly

It was warm enough to sit out, I saw three butterflies - my first this year- all too fast to photograph, I think two were small tortoiseshells - the other was larger but still orange in colour - too fast to identify as well!
And my daffodils have started to flower
One of my favourite flowers!