tulipfest II

It rained and rained and rained last night. Jake (my labrador) had a fabulous time on our morning walk jumping in all the puddles and playing in the stream which was running fast and deep. I went up through the woods to see if there were any signs of violets. Once they appear, you know the wood anemones will be along soon and then the bluebells and then Spring is definitely here. Jake was so muddy and wet that I had to use 5 paw towels to dry him when we got back! But it's been sunny today and the temperature made it into double figures so who's complaining?

There's not much colour in the garden yet. The crocuses and tulips are slowly appearing but they're a bit thin compared to last year. I saw both magpies and foxes digging up my bulbs this winter. I don't know if they dig them up because bulbs are tasty or because they'd got something else buried in the pots (usually nuts) and the bulbs just happen to be in the way. Whatever the reason, the bulbs are coming into flower in a rather haphazard fashion. So, in the absence of colour in the garden, here are this week's tulips:

I was talking to my friend in the Turks and Caicos Islands today. She said that it was 81F which is the usual temperature there, give or take a degree. Hard to imagine for those of us in cold, damp climes, but we can always dream....