Damp ...

.... grey and mizzly but everything is bursting forth - pussy willow, tulips, even a couple of bluebells have emerged. Something is eating my daffs though and I don't know what it is - a pheasant is the prime suspect - they've all been nibbled or totally destroyed. I'm not entirelys sure what this is but it's very exotic and has only produced flowers in the last two years. It's a kind of rhodedendron and it gets enormous. It also drops its leave shortly after flowering. The flowers once fully out are enormous - this is just a little bud.

A profitable if rather dull day - it's wwoof newslwetter time again and I am the lucky one who has to edit it - not very inspiring but paid. I have planted broadbeans, peas and sweetpeas so things now feel as though they're happening in the garden. Sons have been skyped- both basking in T shirts - talking of whom - do check out son number 1's Hockneyesque view of our house and garden - an amazing piece of work. I want a copy.

We weren't very impressed with George Clooney's The Descendents and thought it a bit dull and unengaging though Hawaii looked incredible - the colours of the vegetation! I wouldnt have thought it was a worthy Oscar winner. We shall see.