Boo!

 Looking down into the iris bed this afternoon I spotted a dandelion lurking with most of the seed pods gone!  No doubt there'll be a fresh crop of beautiful yellow flowers later in the year!  The light shining through the fronds was just perfect.  Who cares about new weeds .... they'll hardly be noticed among all the rest!

 With showers and sunshine for the past two days everything has put on a growth spurt.  Grass seed that I was sure the pigeons had devoured has begun to sprout and the black compost now has a green haze over it.  Another few days of this warm damp air and we'll once again have grass at the back ... but with the undulations we're a long way from being able to describe it as "lawn".  Eliot likes it, I'm happy with it ... so ... not a problem!

 Everything has come back to life and the new pine needles here are so soft and fragile but growing fast.  The contrast of this blue/green against the darker hedge is pleasing.

You'll remember that this rhododendron in the back garden was covered with pink buds ... now it is almost pure white!  Once the flowers open they lose their colour altogether and it is a dazzling white ball in the sunshine.  It moves rapidly from that dark pink of the closed bud to the pale shade for flowers just emerging and then on to almost perfect white.

I know that the rain will ruin it in the next day or two as the petals are so fragile ... but just at the moment it is a thing of great beauty.  The way that it changes from pink to white is remarkable.  The fact that it was given to me by a friend who died shortly afterwards makes it even more special. 

 The seed beds have also taken on a new life and cornflowers are the first to produce their cotyledons.  Soon they'll take off and we'll have a sea of blue flowers in just a few weeks.  There's no sign of the sweet pea - but I imagine they'll appear in a day or two - if the pigeons haven't feasted upon them.

It is such a hopeful time of year ... the lessons in church emphasise the Easter hope ... and here in the ground we see the promise of new life from that which was dead.  Even the odd and rather over-sprouted potatoes are beginning to push up to the light.

Ephesians 3:14-21 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (NIV)