May day and beyond

I was all set to post an entry earlier when there was a flash followed by a rumble of thunder, so I shut the computer down and read a book for a while. I'm reading "The Blood Doctor" by Barbara Vine. Fair to middling interesting, not one that I will keep on my bookshelves when I've finished it though. The thing I find strange is that she also writes as Ruth Rendel, and I can't stand those books, but I quite like her Barbara Vine books.

Best news of May Day is that the swifts are back! We were sitting outside and planning which plants to put where when we heard the familiar screeching, and looked up to see them flying high over our rooftop. So I went to the Springwatch website and entered my data. I love to see the swifts wheeling overhead, the gardens down the road must generate a lot of insects as most evenings in the summer you see them flying over.

The plants are all growing away really well. Four of my six Gold Lace primulas are showing buds! I'm really quite excited about this - they arrived as teeny tiny little plants, only about 2" high, and here they are producing flowers! At least they will if the snails don't get them.



I finally split up the hostas and got 8 plants from the one pot. Three I have put in the flower bed, the rest I'm going to grow in in pots for now. John informs me that something nibbled the ones in the flowerbed overnight despite the hosta haloes I put round them, so we'll probably move the pots onto the table for now. At least it makes it more difficult for the slugs and snails to get at them. I've ordered some more nemaslug, had hoped it would come this weekend (they only dispatch once a week) but it didn't, so hopefully next Friday. In the meantime John is applying garlic granules from the same people (you'll need to scroll down to read about them).



My foxgloves are getting huge. Not sure if I'll get to see them flower, as may be in Abersoch by then. But John will enjoy them I'm sure. I just wish I'd found the red campion seeds that I saved last year sooner, will just have to toss them into some pots and see what happens.



Work on the yard is coming along slowly. John has been raking out the old crumbly mortar from the walls, and repointing them. Not a huge amount achieved today because of the thunder and rain, but he did manage a bit more painting (in fact he was out there painting already when I woke up at 6.30 this morning!!!). Already the yard looks so much brighter! Here's yesterday's picture from the bathroom window.



I seem to have strained my right wrist, probably hacking up the hostas. Or maybe I just lay on it awkwardly last night. Typing is being a bit awkward, so I think I'll wrap this up for now, hopefully it will have improved by tomorrow.