Spring is coming slowly in

We have been having some lovely weather recently.  Plenty of sunshine, pleasantly mild for the time of year.  A bit of rain.  A few very windy days.  And you can see that spring is upon us.  The hellebores are in full flower,

the daffodils are out ,

and so are the primroses.

We have made a start on weeding the flower beds

This one has been weeded

But this one very clearly has not.  Really, it needs digging over rather than just weeding

Now we have turned our attention to the side path

As you see, it's very mossy and still quite overgrown from the end of last summer and the beginning of autumn

We've only got about a third of the way down.  We had intended to do more, but the weekend was one of sunshine and some quite heavy showers (including quite a spectacular hail shower!)  It needs sweeping but at least we are beginning to get rid of some of the moss.  And the soil between the bricks is still sufficiently wet that the weeds are mostly quite easy to pull out.  

There is still quite a bit more to do though

I am hopeful that the weather will continue to improve and we'll be able to crack on.  The Under Gardener wants to get the allotment begs dug over too, and the kitchen garden needs attention as well.

We've still got the ducks and the chooks separated. I still haven't been able to find any female ducks and any lead that I come across proves to be a false one. I am hoping people might be hatching ducks even as we speak! We let them out when we are at home.  First the ducks and then later the chooks.  The poor ducks still stay down close to the chicken run.  The chooks, on the other hand, have abandoned the ducks and amble happily all over the garden.  They came up and helped me with the weeding the other day - and then dug over the newly weeded flower bed when I had gone inside. Fortunately only one of the little transplanted primroses got dug out :-D (I have put it back).

I am hoping to start sowing some seeds this week, to germinate inside or in the greenhouse.  I might not put the tomatoes and chillies to germinate in the greenhouse.  It was a glorious morning when we got up today. The sun was shining.  The sky was a deep, deep blue.  And it was about -3d.  And there was a very heavy frost.  Not ideal for tomatoes and chillies!