The birds tweet, the pond bubbles and the marsh marigolds are the first of the pond plants to come into flower.

The wisteria is covered with buds, after very careful pruning by my lovely husband.

There’s a patch of forget-me-nots in flower by the pond, under the Green Man carving.

The cat likes to snooze here when the sun shines.

Lady Raglan coined the term “Green Man” in 1939. She thought that the Green Man of churches and abbeys was “the figure known variously as the Green Man, Jack in the Green, Robin Hood, the King of the May, and the Garland who is the central figure in the May Day celebrations throughout northern and central Europe.” The Company of the Green Man blog.

Ben Edge, an artist who explores folklore was on the Harry Hill Show, talking about the green man and its history. He said all cultures seem to have a version of a face intertwined with nature, they were formerly known as ‘foliate heads’ and you’ll find them in Ancient Egypt, 11th century architecture, and modern culture. Find out more in the joyfully silly ‘Harry Hill Show’ my current favourite ‘podscarf.’

The bluebells under the twisted hazel are beginning to bloom. And that forsythia glows in the sunshine. It was awkward squeezing into this spot to take a picture, but just about worth it, I think. 🙂

The project to extend the rose patch around the patio continues. We got new, bigger stepping stones, and we’ve started planting up the new bed. This has led to much discussion about what should go where, and after some lengthy and somewhat circular chats about rose height, placement, and the best time to move the established plants (we’ve settled on this autumn, after we’ve seen how the new ones look), it’s starting to take shape in this new section.

The planting at the top of the little new terrace is (so far) some campanula ‘porto’ and ‘alba’ along with this ‘Andromeda’ flowering shrub AND a couple of little smoke bushes, on is called ‘golden lady’ and the other one I have already forgotten it’s name and probably lost the label. I realise the smoke bushes might not be little for very long, but was keen to get them out of their pots and into the ground, and will move them around as we see how they grow.

Below the stone wall there are forget-me-not seedlings that my lovely husband relocated from around the pond and patio, and a selection of roses in ‘sunrise’ colours like red, orange and yellow. I’ll collate the list of species from the labels later this weekend.

The honeysuckle plant by the kitchen window is quite possibly home to a robin’s nest. I keep seeing a little robin nearby with twigs, straw and feathers popping in and out of this space. It’s a pleasure to see the birds settling into the garden.

So – that’s my six on Saturday… you can see more collections of garden highlights at the Garden Ruminations blog.

PS – the cut flower beds have provided some amazing blooms for our messy / maximalist home 🙂

Have a lovely week

J xx