Spring Colour

Despite strong winds we have had patches of fine sunshine today in the garden. I hadn't been over to the far fence for some time and was delighted to stumble upon this show of 'naturalising' Cyclamen. We had a tiny pot of them some years ago, and now suddenly they have taken off! Is this due to our relatively frost-free winter, do you think? Apparently the Cyclamen we buy here in the UK have their origins in the wild, especially in places around the Mediterranean.

It's still over a month until St David's Day, but we couldn't resist these small Daffodils (or are they Narcissus?). We planted them in with the miniature Iris you see below, and I couldn't help noticing that the yellow and blue colours match those of a certain flag...

We visited a local nursery to buy our plants this afternoon, rather than the commercial garden centres, but I wonder when biodegradable pots will become the norm. I do hope it will be soon. Small plastic flowerpots (like the one with the daffs) are not much use to us once the plants have been planted out. The plastic container with the Iris was bought years ago before the plastic issue became so well known and so pressing. It has been reused many times and, since we have it, will doubtless continue to house new plants as needs arise. How do you keep plastic to a minimum in your gardening endeavours, I wonder?

While we were outside, we couldn't help noticing how unfazed the birds seemed by our presence. Robin, Starling, Long-tailed and Blue tits simply carried on eating the fat and seeds in the coconut feeders. I even saw a large Queen Bumblebee looping the loop. How long before my first butterfly sighting?