April

Madam, enjoying the sun today

April has arrived and the sun finally reappeared on Sunday afternoon.  The skies were clear last night so there was a hard frost this morning but that burnt off once the sun was up. The wind is still pretty sharp, coming in from the East, but if you are sheltered from it, the Sun sure feels nice. This is what happens when the jetstream buggers off for a while. March was a continuation of the cold, grey, wet weather that has dominated most of the past five months so we are way overdue for a nice long dry spell. 

Today the neighbourhood clotheslines are full and yesterday, almost on cue with the sun's appearance, you could hear lawnmowers starting up. I mowed our lawn yesterday too was surprised to see how much more new growth is happening in the non grassed areas. My mini daffodils will soon be done for the season. There are a few hyacinths in bloom, but they will disappear again for another year too. My lavender bush has fresh new sprigs on it as does the Japanese maple tree. The crocosmia have lots of green shoots up and I hope they flower this year. They didn't last year for some reason and I missed the clusters of tiny orange flowers that bloom on the long green spears.  The giant fuchsia bush is still brown but that is the last thing to come to life and blooms well into the Autumn after everything else has settled into hibernation.

The Easter weekend is on the horizon. We won't be traveling, I avoid travel in this country on holidays, instead we are off to the coast later this month. Amazing what a bit of sun and warmth does to you outlook, isn't it!