A Gardening Day.

It has been sunny and warm today, 10C ! I've spent most of the day gardening and have managed to finish weeding all the heather banks. I'm giving myself a pat on the back for that as I was tempted to work down by the stream in the lovely sunshine rather than on the north-facing hillside. But I resisted and got on with the job in hand. At least I was able to look at blue skies and the sun lighting up the winter foliage in other parts of the garden.

A good thing that I stuck with the job as the early heathers are covered in almost open flowers. Now I will be able to enjoy the full glory of the swathes of purple and white along the hillside. Before we came here I wasn't keen on heathers at all apart from out on the moors but in our wet, soil-less clay conditions they are ideal and I'm so happy to have planted them. They also fit the local conditions as they are not affected by the legions of slugs that inhabit our garden. The rain that had been forecast for the afternoon finally arrived at 5.30, about 5 mins after I had finished for the day.

While I was feeding the hens this morning I saw my neighbour in the next-door meadow by the lake. They have been given another call duck by some people who live about a mile away. Apparently it spent most of yesterday trying to walk home up the hill but today it was at least swimming on the lake with the very noisy call duck and a few wild ducks.