A Brief Taste Of Spring

I finally ventured into the garden today, encouraged by the Spring sunshine and mild weather to tidy up a bit before the next bout of cold weather, due to hit us at the weekend. I was accompanied throughout by a very cute, chirpy robin - who declined to be photographed - hopping from tree to fence and following me around quite happily.

My garden always looks a mess after the winter months - littered with pine needles and cones from the monster tree in the corner that I can't get rid of, they cling to everything and get into all the corners and are a nightmare to collect up. The grass is long but too wet to cut, so the cones are hidden, just waiting for the lawnmower to find them and spit them out in bits. One of the local cats seems to prefer using the grass as a toilet, instead of the dirt, so I have to tread carefully to avoid the little piles of poo, as well as copious amounts of bird droppings from the aforementioned tree! It's not a pleasant prospect getting it back into shape at this time of year, but it does always look better for it.

Today was just the initial tidy-up, the main work will have to wait until it dries out a bit - the grass is actually water-logged in places, it's been that wet recently, and at least one shrub has succumbed to the cold weather (or maybe I killed it off!). Now that I've started, I actually can't wait to get going on it properly, so let's hope the weather warms up again soon.