Always nice to come home after a couple of days and see how the garden is – particularly at the moment, with bulbs happening. The daffs are looking well; have a couple more bells out, which is nice; and I think the third hyacinth might be growing, which is very odd indeed. The climbing rose is looking nice with its white flowers – Mum feels a bit guilty because we had a hack at it and might have chopped off lots of flower potential. Oh well; can’t have been too unhappy if it’s decided to flower anyway.

Looking at Mum’s and Aunty Allison’s gardens has given me all sorts of ideas. Allison has a very shady spot she’s basically turning into a fernery, but with some other stuff too: I am so going to find myself some helleborus, I love it! And I’m going to try alyssum and violas in the front and just let them go a bit wild. Very exciting. I keep having to remind myself not to do anythign drastic (like remove the hedge) until autumn, when we’ve been here a year and have seen all the garden has to offer. I must also remember to see if I can find a home for the hedge, come ripping-out time. Which reminds me: the possibly-violets in the courtyard, behind the hedge, which I thought J might have killed with the ladder, have ressurected themselves. I rather wondered if they might do that.