A Miscellaney

Spring hasn't so much arrived as popping in for short visits; one minute glorious sunshine, the next biting winds and cold rain

 

However, in the midst of this climate confusion we have some small glories.....

 

The greenhouse is finally in production with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and masses of beans - borlotti, dwarf French beans, red and green broad beans; as well as the inevitable chard and beetroot.

 

The greenhouse now comes complete with its own fertility goddess.

This wonderfully booby and frankly cuddly lady is a copy of the famed Venus of Willendorf

It was immensely fun to crochet and just seemed perfect for overseeing the ongoing productiveness of the greenhouse - I expect truly magnificent seedlings and bumper crops this year!

 

Outside in the herb beds we have shades of green in as its fluorescent new growth.  You can practically see the plants growing as you gaze into this gorgeous colour.

 

 Clockwise from the east we have Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum), Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor), Lemon Balm (Melissa officianalis) and Golden Hop (Humulus lupulus).

I'm wandering up the garden several times a day just to stare at the colour. The woodruff only went in last summer and is already on it's way to taking over - it will need strict management and keeping firmly away from the salad burnet and hop but I'm hoping it and the lemon balm will cancel each other out; I have to say though it is gorgeous and perfect ground cover.

The apple is in blossom and looks just wonderful.  I think this must be about the most perfect mixture of pink, white and green to ever occur and I cannot stop sighing over it.

 

I was wandering through the village the other day and I was taken with the texture and beauty of these wonderful lichens on a hawthorn hedge covered with rain drops.

 

More lovely lichen accompanied by deliciously delicate ivy leaves.

 

Now on a more serious note - would I be cynical in thinking North Korea's sudden rapprochement with South Korea has less to do with Trump's imagined diplomatic skills in peace brokering and more to do with the sudden geological instability of North Korea's primary nuclear testing side due to its missile testing programme?

I'm grateful for anything that stops nuclear testing programmes but frankly I'd rather it wasn't because radiation pollution and collapsing mountains had made the area unusable.