Pottering about in the sunshine

 Woken up to a beautiful day ! Birds singing and blue sky ! The wind has gone , the sun is shining ....aah..doesn't it make you feel good after all that rough weather .

The  Camellia is flowering beautifully now .

I took the cover off the Agave and wiped away a few rain drops to prevent the leaves from being scorched by the sun .

I noticed these interesting golden fungi growing on the old wooden spade .

I went in for a closer look . You can click on my pictures to  go in a bit closer too.

                                            Somewhat irritated by this !

This afternoon I am going to dig the poor plant out , pot it up and bring it into the porch , see if I can revive it . This was a lovely Osteospermum . If it recovers , I will plant it out into a flower bed . They survive just fine in the ground . This was really badly blasted by the cruel East wind the other day,because it was in a tub out in an open area of the garden . The fleece covering should have protected it , but the fleece fabric disintegrated , sort of crumbled away and it  all then ripped apart in the wind .  So that is my job for this afternoon .

As I walked up to the greenhouse , I could see the young Buzzard who has taken to sitting in our meadow . I tried to creep ever so quietly up the path , to get a good picture of him , but he is now older ,wiser and very ,very aware . His sharp eye caught sight of my shadow and he was off and away !

 Last year he was just an inquisitive baby and quite happy to sit in this tree looking down on me just a few feet below!

I noticed the catkins coming into flower on the Alder tree . I am so happy to have this tree in my garden . So pretty with both it's long catkins and tiny Alder-cones.

My Winter veggies are looking great . I like to have this living larder .

                                        The Garlic is looking good !

And back indoors , on the windowsill , the leeks are really growing away !

So I continue into the greenhouse ,everything is bathed in sunshine and the puddles are drying, steaming up the windows . I leave the door open for a while to clear it .

This is Agave americana var.striata . It has beautiful yellow streaked leaves . I,ve had it a very long time now , but it hasn't grown because I haven't potted it up into the next size pot . If you don't pot them up, they stay small. I would like to try this one outside , but I will wait until it produces a few pups . I think I might push this higher up on my list of jobs to do . Update 26th Feb - now brought into the front  porch for extra pampering .

Finally after a morning of gently pottering around the garden , it is time for a cup of tea . As I come in through the porch , I notice that poor Cyclamen that I brought in yesterday .

                               It is recovering much faster that I thought !

I do love Cyclamen , their flowers last for such a long time and are so cheerful through the darkest of days .

  I need more of these lovely plants !