A charm in the garden

Yesterday I sat down to write this blog. I wrote the first paragraph when the keyboard died on me. So that was that. The Fox seems to have done something overnight that has restored its function, although I’m half expecting it to give up mid-word once again.

I was writing about how the left hand side of the garden has suddenly opened into signs of life, if not colour. The lilac tree is covered in creamy white cones. They smell simply divine. The large pergola is covered with white clematis. All visible from the kitchen windows.

When you venture further in the garden you can see the rose bushes are starting to open up their white buds.

The right hand side still steals the show, with its huge peach rhododendrons and the coral azalea further up.

We did get to a garden centre. Now there is a camellia in the blank area between the pergola and the lilac tree. I’m surprised to say we bought a pink one, rather than the red one we’d been intending. It’s just such a pretty delicate shade of pink. We also put in that area a rusty coloured broom. So hopefully next spring/early summer we will have more colour we can see from the kitchen windows.

This week has also brought us another garden delight – some unexpected visitors. A couple of days the garden has been filled with squawking & much activity as a flock of starlings have been scurrying around, criss-crossing the lawns. And one day we were lucky to be visited by not one, but half a dozen, goldfinches. On both occasions the Fox was witness too - usually our visitors seems to avoid him, but not this time. It was the first time he’d seen a goldfinch. Now he agrees with me there is something wonderful about their red clown faces & flashes of gold on their wings. It seems very apt that the collective term for these small birds is a charm of goldfinches. We certainly feel charmed.