Early morning tea and tulips

 

It was hot in the garden by 9.00 am this morning.   Everything is coming out at once and the tulips will be over in no time.   But I am really enjoying them.   They are so much more exciting than what you see in the catalogues as they really do their own thing.   No controlling nature!

Special spring herbs

I Love Lovage and Sorrel too...

There are two slightly unusual herbs which grow well in my garden and whose first emergence always inspires me to cook my favourite recipes with them.

One is Sorrel which I make into the easiest possible of soups - tomato and sorrel - with the added bonus that it is equally good hot or chilled with a little crushed ice added. 

The other is Lovage - a rather large and potential thugish plant resembling celery in appearance but with a decidedly aniseedy flavour.    While the young leaves are edible, the stems are best used for flavouring.    I use it in another very easy but delicious casserole with onions, garlic and dry Martini(!) - adapted from a Judith Hann recipe for Guinea fowl - which works equally well with corn-fed chicken.  
I have just discovered Hann's Herbs:   http://www.hannsherbs.co.uk/tours.php   Looks like the most wonderful day out either to the garden or cookery classes - and she was lovely to work with.

Parrot tulip Rai

In the past week the tulips have come on at the most dramatic pace.   The ones in the front border which catch the afternoon sun are looking quite scorched.   Two pots of parrot tulips have grown in very funny shapes - following the sun - but what a joy they are.   Here are a couple of images of Parrot tulip Rai.   They were a last-minute decision but I am so very happy I indulged myself.

A bundle of noisy sparrows

Just been alerted by a great loud cheeping in the garden which had to be sparrows.   Mixed up in the branches of the bay hedge it was hard to tell how many there were - at least 4 or 5 - all seemingly shouting and tumbling over one another before they all flew off in equally raucous manner.   I hope some of them come back to nest!

Mid March frost

One morning I came down to find this frost had caught me and the garden by surprise - having put out my bird baths and failed to cover over the plentiful blossom on my little apricot tree - its first proper flowering.   The bird baths are fine but I thin I may have lost most of the apricot crop.   It also dissuaded me from planting dahlia corms which I put off until the end of March.

March has whizzed by

So much for good intentions - March has whizzed by and now we are into April and everything is bursting into life so fast I can hardly keep up with it.   But there are a couple of visually noteworthy events I have managed to photograph.

These pictures were taken at Savil Garden on March 5th.   Most things were rather behind but there were some wonderful skeletal leaf and twig forms I could never have spotted otherwise: