Short break.

I'm taking a break for a short while to spend time with my daughter, who will be visiting from her home in Vancouver.

It's many years since we were there but I have such lovely memories of the city, trips to Granville Island market, a night at the opera, a journey up Grouse Mountain......

It will be so good to hear how much it has all changed...and of course to enjoy her company.

My newest Clematis.

I couldn't resist!

I went to the annual Spring Garden show in Truro last week, and wasn't very impressed by the plants on sale....until I arrived at the Clematis stand.

I've been looking for a deep purple one for a while , and this is just perfect.

She is called, rather boringly, Multi Blue, and has the interesting little frilly centre.

As soon as she was planted there was a race amongst the slugs to get to her first. I do try to use non toxic methods of repelling the little beasts, but I did put a few granules out. I have found a method of keeping the slugs off by surrounding the plant with non toxic granules, that looks a bit like chopped gravel. The slugs won't crawl over this, apparently.

I'm hoping for great bursts of flower from my new acquisition.

Garden birds.

There has been great activity in our garden today.

Some time ago, my husband made a bird box when we stayed at the Blind Veteran Centre in Brighton. I did wonder if the birds would appreciate its unusual shape....but

today we have spent time watching these pretty little Bluetits flying in and out.

At the moment we are not quite sure if they are building a nest or already have babies and are feeding them. It seems a little early for that but we shall learn more over the next few days. We fixed the box in an old apple tree.

It is such a thrill to watch them, especially as during the three years we have been here the birds have studiously ignored any other older boxes already in the garden.

Obviously a New Build was more to their taste.

Under the apple tree on which the box is positioned, I have a small collection of favourites, particularly Cowslips, primroses, grape hyacinths and a little bit of London Pride. I remember that growing in my Grandma's garden.

These cushions of Aubrietia and white Arabis have done so well and are a great joy when I look out of my kitchen window.

Spring is really on her way now.

The Duchy college

Every couple of months or so, a morning at the Duchy Horticultural college is arranged for Cornwall Blind Association.

I took my husband down there today for a session on planting hanging baskets.

The Nursery is a commercially run business growing plants for retail purposes. The students work here and gain experience not only in growing but also in marketing.

The campus is situated on the site of a former Ministry of Agriculture experimental horticultural station. Students come here to study animal management, veterinary studies, floristry, engineering and garden and landscape design.

It is deep in the heart of the country and every time I go there I take a wrong turning and end up travelling down lanes with no apparent ending. Beautiful primroses though!

I spoilt myself a little and used the time to go to a nearby hotel in Redruth for a coffee and a manicure. 

Two hours in Camborne would have been difficult to fill.

Best of all, we came home with a fully planted hanging basket full of petunias, geraniums, ivy, lobelia and other plants. That will take pride of place in the garden.

Perfect Sunday

On a beautifully sunny Easter morning we were so pleased to be able to go to our local Church for the service. Access has been virtually impossible with a wheelchair, but new ramps have been put in, a disabled parking area made...and even someone to help wheel down the steep path.

This is such a pretty country church, set amongst fields, primroses flowering all around.

The service was super, and the sun poured in through the windows , highlighting the vases of daffodils.

The vicar, doing his child related thing, invited four or five little ones to help him open some Easter eggs. They were empty.

'I wonder if you can tell me why they are empty' he asked ( connection here to the empty tomb, maybe)

'Because', said one little girl confidently, 'the Easter bunny ate the chocolate'.

Of course.

Our second stop of the day was this lovely old building in Truro, once a Convent and now a Hotel. Here we had a delightful lunch, tables prettily set in yellow and white, with vases of daffodils on each one.

The sunshine made for a perfect Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter,

Happy Easter!

Waiting.

Luke 23, vv 47 -56

 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man."  When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.  But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Jesus' Burial

  Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,  who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.  Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.  

Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

  The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.  Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Good Friday.

Amen.

Soft pale pink tulips. fuzzy Pussy Willows.

Comforting on a day when Christians feel a brokenness.