Despite the bitter wind, we walked up round the back today along a section of the Great Flat Lode (which isn’t flat) and were delighted to see so many violets in the hedgerows and the Bluebell buds beginning to colour up.
Cornish violets for my cousin in Australia
The views of the sea from the top are especially good on cold clear days like today.
The Atlantic, the A30 and, in between, three chimneys from the tin mining era
The Gorse is gloriously yellow in the sunshine.
Spring has certainly sprung in our garden with the promise of more to come. We’ve had sunshine this week but still very cold winds and not really enough rain. (We don’t often say that in Cornwall.)
1. The tulips in pots are magnificent. 
2. The Sweet Pea seedlings are coming along nicely. We have popped fleece around them when frosts were predicted. It’s almost time to tie them in.
3. To accommodate the new Amanagowa Cherry tree, the lovely Mr S has re-designed the lawn and the curve is very pleasing.
4. The buds on the tree are almost ready to burst.
5. Baby plants arrived today from Sarah Raven, ordered with Christmas and birthday vouchers from family. I have potted up the Cosmos and the Osteospermum, some of which will be in the pollinator border at the allotment and some at home. The tulips above were also bought with birthday vouchers. It’s really lovely to have presents that keep on appearing. We’ll be able to eat some of them too as we also bought vegetable seeds and baby plants yet to arrive. . 
6. Because we now have the allotment, I am having one of the raised beds in the garden for cutting flowers. There is already a line of Sweet Peas by the trellis and today we have dug the last of our leeks to make space for my flower garden. So, not strictly garden, here is the Leek and Chicken Pie I made for supper tonight.
If you’d like a peek at other gardens, pop over to The Propagator who invites folk to join in Six on Saturday, and follow the links in the comments to see gardens all over the world.
We spent the morning at the allotment planting many onion sets, red and white looking forward to a good harvest. You’ll have to look closely to see them!
The post today brought me my pre-ordered copy of Peggy Seeger’s new cd – First Farewell. I’ve been watching her online each Sunday tea-time and many weeks ago, in an online Songs of Protest with Greenham Common women, Peggy sang one of her new songs that really touched me, “How I Long For Peace.” Another gem on this wonderful album is, “Gotta Get Home By Midnight.” I love how she is laughing on the cover and that all the music is made with her sons and daughters in law. It’s truly beautiful in every way. 
What a lovely afternoon we had with friends in the garden! We caught up on news and laughed and laughed – a tonic for us all. The cakes went down well too – the Heligan Pineapple Cake and Sticky Ginger Cake, a new recipe from Cornish Kitchen.
Sticky Ginger Cake from Cornish Kitchen
Our lovely neighbour is an artist as regular readers will know. She is in the middle of a project making very special swimming hats for local sea swimmers. She needed a model today to set the angle correctly so here is one of her designs. The others so far are a bunch of flowers, a sailing boat and a pineapple. 
There is just one rose left from my Mother’s Day bouquet, four weeks after delivery.
Last one standing
We have friends coming round tomorrow for a much longed-for catch-up in the garden so I have made cake. You can find the recipe for this delicious fruity cake by clicking on the red link.
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I went to check on the allotment today and discovered that the Jackdaws had pulled out nearly half of our baby Broad Beans! I planted some more beans and covered the bed, hopefully to foil the irritating Jackdaws! I was cheered by the Tete a Tete in a corner of our plot, Tulips on a next door plot and a glorious golden Dandelion in the midst of a bed of Forget-me-nots.
Another bunch of Daffodils bringing us joy……
I rarely use this lovely quirky beaker given to me by a young colleague when I retired in 2006: I just have it on display. 
We really miss seeing the ‘Nearly Home Trees’ when we return from up-country as we haven’t been away for well over a year. This piece of fused glass hangs in our kitchen window and pleases us both. 
The Kalettes are flowering and make a pretty vase-full. They taste good too if caught before the flowers open so that they are like Purple Sprouting Broccoli.
I spotted this delightful door knocker in Penryn the other day after leaving the optician. 
I love this poem. It sums up my blog for me – ordinary things being just perfect.
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It has been a beautiful day in so many ways. The sun shone and Daughter no 1 visited for the first time in a very long time. We cooked the frozen pasties that she had ordered some days ago and we ate them in the sun and Spring-filled garden. They were truly scrumptious.
Rowes pasties cooked at home
The warmth brought a butterfly to our garden.
Red Admiral butterfly
The Tulips are looking gorgeous.
When we were in Nepal some years ago, we went to watch the amazingly beautiful sunrise over the mountains and on the way back down, were persuaded to buy a small stone egg which, when tapped, broke in half to reveal an ammonite. LiveWire No 4 has a birthday next week and is interested in fossils and rocks so we have sent it it to her and ordered a book to go with it. We are now using Bookshop.org to buy books as we cannot go to the shops yet. Every purchase with them pays a share to your nominated local bookshop and avoids using the huge warehouses where the staff are not treated properly.
On our walk today we went through the park on our way into town and passed a very young Cherry tree with just one branch full of blossom.
Today we have planted three Blueberry bushes in one of our raised beds. Now that we have the allotment, we are giving more space in the garden to the Raspberries, some Blueberries, the sweetcorn and a cutting flower bed.
The border outside the kitchen has gone from the bright yellow of the Tete a Tete to whites and pale yellows of Narcissi and blues and mauves of the Muscari and Anemones..
Next door’s big fir tree lights up beautifully with the golden hour sunlight.
It was tea-time for the lambs and their mothers as I was out catching the golden sunlight.
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