April Showers - and gales......

It's been a mixed bag of weather this last week. Temperatures are warming up, and yesterday (Easter Sunday) started with rain but ended up a beautiful mild sunny afternoon and evening. However today we are back to wind, grey skies and rain.

But I made the most of the sunshine yesterday and was out transplanting "perennials" from the border at the rear of the house to the new borders in the walled garden. The rear border has been populated with rosa rugosa, willows, fuchsia, hebe and other fairly tough shrubs which are all now growing together and filling in the gaps. I'd started planting perennials there a year or so ago in preparation for the walled garden, so it's satisfying to be able to split and transplant clumps of plants. Though it will be some time before the walled garden borders look anything but sparse - sigh. Each border is 100ft long - that's room for a lot of plants!

As ever, the hens were in attendance. During one of the more windy days last week the "gate" keeping them out of the garden blew down, so the girls came in and helped me with the gardening. At one point I was lifting a clump of cornflowers with a garden fork underneath the plant and a hen on top of it!

The new cockerel is as yet unnamed but is much more amenable than the last one. At least this one is scared of me and runs in the opposite direction when I appear. Maybe he's heard the stories of what his fate will be if he doesn't behave! Anyway the girls seem happy with him. Though he did spend two days in the pen with the bull. He managed to get in OK but couldn't seem to get *out* again - clearly not the brightest of specimens..... Junior, the younger cockerel was hand reared before I got him and is very friendly and lets me stroke him. So hopefully all will be well again.

Below Junior doing the poultry equivalent of "Nah Nah, Nah-Nah, Nah" on the fallen garden "gate"