The idea of starting this blog is to post part of my diary  as a forum for my botanical drawings and watercolour paintings  (with which I seem to have become obsessed with producing)  and perhaps, at the same time,  provide some amusing  snippets of interest for family, friends and likeminded individuals.  A bit like the modern version of the “Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady” – see what you think. I guess I’ll learn as I go along.

Monday 9th March 2015 – Sharp frost this morning followed by wet and windy day.

The snowdrops are only now starting to go over and here and there a primrose or the occasional primula is peeping out between the leaf debris in the flower beds. The hellebore have suddenly bloomed and the garden is definitely starting to show signs of spring.   I have been feeding the birds in the garden here on a small, traditional table in full view from the kitchen window.  I leave out wild bird seed mix and suet pellets purchased from my local super market.  Amongst the regular visitors are a flock of comical long-tailed tits who dart in to the hanging feeders from the nearby bushes;  great tits, blue tits, coal tits, robins, nuthatches, various sparrows, blackbirds and the occasional finch all drop by, but not as yet this year the spotted woodpeckers.  There are a couple of sparrowhawks resident in the valley, who were spotted nesting in the old rectory fir copse last year. From time to time, one will streak through the farm yard sending the resident bird population into a frenzy.  I have seen them weave in and out of the big barn windows,  chasing the swallows, reminiscent of Battle of Britain spitfire aircraft in old films hunting down their prey;  a pile of feathers; the evidence of their forays!