Changeable April

April has certaily been less than kind. The rains continued, then it got hot and now, right at the end of the month, there was ice on the windshield of the Honda this morning and we've had a couple of days of frosts. We'd put the summer weight bedding on the bed, cleaned out the woodburners...OK, that was probably asking for it! There'll be a fire in the livingroom stove tonight....It's only about 16C in the house today. 12C outside at noon. Weird stuff this global warming.

We also had some very high winds which were worrying as there was a very tall, dead pine just across the road from the house, waving about in the wind, not flexing at all. Amandeo, who owns that bit of forest got a couple of foresters to drop it, controlling the fall with a cable to a tractor - off at a safe distance!

 

Neat job.

During the warm bit we had our first BBQ of the year on my birthday...

Well smoked Chicken...

Nice to be able to eat outside again. I turned 66 and the track up to the house got a tiny bit steeper..

(Still lookin' good though Sx)

This is the time of year when there is the most work to be done and the sun finally brought on the early garden colour.

Having had so much rain the long-delayed clear up was needed...but we got stuck in at last and the land has had a haircut, except for the patches that still have wild flowers. Took 4 of us a day to get this far.

The water feature has had its annual clear out and we have added a water lily to make it a bit more colourful this year. Now need to add gambusia (mosquito fish) to eat the inevitable influx of mosquito larvae.

Meanwhile, there are Irises up all over the place!

I have been using them to brush up on my botanical illustration skills, such as they are!

Sylvi has started to collate an on-line catalogue of the wildflowers that we find here on the land and in the woods. Early days and she isn't a professional at identifying what they are, but you can see her first attempt on a local gardener's group blog here

Neighbour Antonio pitched up to rotavate the field he'd earlier ploughed. Hit the soft bit and went in nearly up to his axles, but still managed to complete the job, avoiding a repeat run through the wet spot... 

Sylvi has been sowing wildflowers, Sunflowers and planting cabbages in the nice soft ground.

We planted a few more trees today too, including two Sequoias which might give someone a headache - in a few hundred years!

Hope that the weather wherever you are is improving.....tonight we are freezing our butts off so..........off to light the fire.