This native clematis is one of the joyful contributors to the showy spring flowers. Hopefully it'll climb its way right up the shade sail post where it'll be joined by solar fairy lights. The stunning red Rhodie by the front door has just opened its first bloom, and the flag irises are coming away. Several other flowers in the main bed are adding to the eclectic mix of colours. Maybe one day I'll work out a more traditional palette pattern, but probably not. Too much enjoyment in the haphazard clashing colours for me. 
Plants that aren't flowering yet are budding and/or leafing up. This includes most of the young trees in the new woodlot that were nibbled during the autumn cow invasion. It looks like there may be some losses - a couple of oaks and maples - but otherwise most are coming away. The acorns and peachcots that germinated from seed can fill up any gaps come autumn. Late to leaf are the silky oak and the gingko, but even these are finally coming away. Most of the stone and pip fruit blossom is now done and fruitlets are forming. The quince tree, that had a pretty serious haircut (of the Karyn variety) in winter, is blooming its heart out. It's hard to predict at this stage what volume of fruit will eventuate, but I'm always optimistic. We're awaiting news of the birth or our piglets-to-be. They'll make short work of any fruit excess.
Madame Cholet is nurturing crops as well as seeds. There are 4 grafted tomatoes that'll make up summer salads, and peppers, chillies, aubergines and 2 melon plants planted in the back bed. The aubergines are looking promising this year - it'd be great to get a decent crop from them for once. The front bed had been taking care of hundreds of strawberry plants in transit, that have now either been returned to their newly nourished and weedmatted bed or gifted to friends and colleagues. 
Progress on the raised beds in the horse arena has been happening, though I'm trying to ignore the weed mass in the beds and paths at the back that I've yet to get round to. 4 raised beds are cleared, weedmatted and re-planted. That leaves 3 big beds plus a couple of small ones to tackle. It's good to realise I'm more than half way through at least, even though it's the mint (pepper and spear) beds that are left. 
The spuds are popping up, and so are some of Peter's that he planted in a sectioned-off zone in the pig run. This year the seed potatoes were laid on the soil surface, with soil raked over them in traditional mounds. I read somewhere that this takes advantage of the warmed soil in early spring, whereas burying them and then later mounding means they start off in cold soil. 
The original asparagus is sending up lots of spears, and blimey they're delish. Every few days there's a little feast to be had. I've made good use of my asparagus knife (courtesy of Marcus and Nikki a few Christmases ago), modelled in the photo by Karyn who is also enjoying the asparagus. The new crowns have yet to appear from beneath their blanket of sheep and cow poo and pea straw, and in any case will have to be sacrificed to their crowns for a couple of years. By 2021 there should be more asparagus than you can shake a stick at. Now there's a first world problem.
I've long yearned for a top bar beehive, and now that I have some beekeeping knowledge and experience, it seems like a good time to go ahead. Sam and Molly, who are interested in having their own hive, did a bit of top bar research and found a photo of a half wine barrel being used as a hive. Before we knew it, Molly had sourced a good-condition wine barrel, and we were drafting plans to convert it into 2 hives. There have been a few design decisions. We realised quite early on that a barrel shape is not totally conducive to hive conversion because of its changing dimensions. However it is possible to work around this, and Peter is making great (and very exciting) progress. 
The sheep have been the source of considerable heartache and self-reproach. We have a gorgeous black ewe lamb (Marie), but have buried one ewe and 4 lambs in the last couple of weeks - a horrifying and unprecedented head count. Marie's twin sister was rejected by her mum, but we didn't realise. She must have been managing to get a quick occasional feed from her mum, but died at a week old one awful stormy night, presumably from starvation. We shouldn't have missed the signs. That same night, one of the ewes birthed a dead lamb and then she rolled over and died herself. And finally the last ewe birthed another set of twins. We watched for any obvious signs of rejection, but she was clearly very attached to both lambs. What we didn't realise was that she wasn't producing enough (or maybe any) milk for them. They were both dead within a few days. Such rookie mistakes with tragic consequences. Totally gutted. Hopefully wiser for next year.
Plans for Christmas are starting to fall into place. Lucas is planning to come over with his girlfriend Laura, and Sam and Molly will also be around. Billy has started his au pair job near Zurich and won't have enough time off to head home. He might hit on some of his British relatives instead. I'll finish up with undergraduate teaching before Christmas (a big relief) and will take a clinical secondment in December and January that includes some on call. Then Auntie Sally will be joining us in mid-January. We had our first taste of summer today (26 degrees) - so good to have the sun on your back, though any hotter will be counter-productive to outdoor work. Gorgeous spring, a real pleasure to be so closely connected to the seasons.
