My week: surprises

It was the perfect Spring day yesterday; sunshine, warmth, blue skies. Even in an ordinary and seemingly unexciting  place such as the car park of a local supermarket  the butterflies were flitting around the blossoming shrubs.  Back home, looking out of the window I saw a butterfly feasting on the nectar of the plum blossom and with camera in hand quickly went out to get a closer look.  By then the butterfly was resting on the cypress hedge.

Indoors I was thrilled to see that the fritillary (fritillaria meleagris) bulbs planted in the Autumn of last year had buds and then flowers. They're fascinating to look at close up. There are also five tulips (Blue Parrot) in the pot that I'm looking forward to seeing in flower in due course.

Taking a look around the garden I was amazed to see this rose in bloom.  Apparently it was one that had been in the covered yard over the Winter months and Mr P had transferred it to a spot by the garage wall and behind a garden seat to give it some shelter.  I'm always getting surprises like that when the plants that he's been nurturing inside are transplanted in the garden or he picks some flowers and puts them in a vase on the kitchen window sill for me to enjoy.

narcissi (Paper white) and (Orangery)

The miniature daffodils are still blooming, the blue, white and yellow polyanthus still looks fresh and the tomato plants are growing with lots more in individual pots on indoor window sills.

 The wallflowers are doing well and the last of the daffodils have survived the windy weather.

The rosemary flowers, hopefully, will attract the butterflies and any bees that should start to come by once the weather gets warmer.

front garden

 Slow progress, but a few more rows around the blanket have been done!

More reading, crocheting and walking in the park to the library and the adjoining walled garden as well as the usual food shopping and household chores continue as part of our daily and weekly routine.

The warmth of yesterday seems to have been a bit of a treat as today we're back to cloudier skies although it's still quite mild and the sun is trying to peep through the clouds every now and again.

Warming comfort food is what I'm cooking. The other evening it was minestrone with lots of different vegetables and legumes in the pot accompanied by a glass of home made wine.

Friday Bliss # 21

We have snow, but so far not as heavy as in other regions.

Early morning it was just a sprinkling, but by mid morning it was.....

.........like this.

It stopped, the sun came out for an hour or two and

Mr P managed to clear the flat area of  paving stones 

leading up to the front door. 

The back and side gardens are sheltered by the hedges,

  the garage and adjoining covered yard.

Mr P received a couple of gardening books for Christmas

 with good photo illustrations and he sat

 in the warm kitchen with a mid morning coffee reading them.

I'm sure the information has given him ideas

for growing some different vegetables this year.

In the covered yard/conservatory there are a few wallflowers 

in bloom and the mixed narcissi are in bud.

This variety is called 'Orangery',

but I don't remember what else was planted so there will be 

a surprise when they flower.  There are also tulips planted

deeper down in the soil in the pots and planters.

The shlumbergera is just about to burst into bloom again.

Our daughter who came to stay during the Christmas holidays has left

us a box of herbal and fruit teas which is handy as our other daughter

prefers them to ordinary breakfast tea.  I like breakfast tea, but I've been 

trying the many varieties in the box.

DiL gave me tea related items for Christmas with this lovely

knitted tea cosy and a small tin of English afternoon tea leaves.

I know the ice and snow conditions are causing major problems 

whilst in other countries the heat and lack of water is a hardship.

 There are events we would like to go to, but we shall have to give them

 a miss until the weather improves.

Joining Riitta's Friday Bliss #21 linkup

Summer days

On our way back from one of our days out we stopped at Haggler's Corner for a cup of tea.

It's a building we often pass on our way through town in an area where there are lots of 

interesting individual businesses; cafes, co-operative art venues, second hand and antique shops.

You can't help noticing Haggler's Corner.

The cup of tea and the musical trio made for a very welcome break.

What interested me most was the wall painting in the cafe courtyard of Granelli's shop that sells old fashioned varieties of sweets and home made ice cream. The old shop still stands and it's one I noticed when we first visited the city of Sheffield and wondered about the Italian community living here. Then I met a lady, now a good friend, at a family history course whose great grandparents were Italian immigrants who settle in the city and she's told me some interesting tales about the early days. If you're interested you can read more about the Italians who lived in Sheffield's 'Little Italy' in the C19th and C20th century here. Some were skilled artisans making terrazzo mosaics for floors and walls in important city buildings and others were street vendors who sold their wares to the theatres and music hall audiences and later established businesses such as an ice cream saloon in the city centre.   

I haven't been to the shop as it's a little out of my way, but the Granelli family sells ice cream in the new covered market in the city centre.  We're having some warm weather at the moment and just right for enjoying some specially-made Italian ice cream so I might check out the market stall there. Alternatively a quiet time sitting in the garden with a bowl of strawberries (not our own, as yet) might be a good idea. I shall enjoy the new plants and plant pots we were given recently and those that we bought after a visit to a couple of our local garden nurseries at the weekend.