The Iris are really getting into their stride now. The Lilliputs in the scree garden were first and were mostly over by the end of the first week of April. Pink Music and purple Spree were first

closely followed by Gingerbread

Joyful Love appeared next on the outcrop above the pond

Next came Fingertips and Real Coquette

last of all Cat’s Eye and Bombay Sapphire

Meantime the wild dark blue Iris on the bank by the gate have faded to be replaced by yellow and white Intermediates, Tact and Jersey Cream amongst them.

The tall wild, or wild to me, someone else may have planted them before we came, pale blues are also out now

but they don’t really need planting, this bunch came from some rhizomes which I left here when I was thinning out the overgrown clumps on the edge of the bank above the lower cave.

More surprisingly the Grande Iris, the tall bearded, which I never expect to see until May have started. First among them in the Mediterranean Garden, but as I write now 3 weeks into April, flowers are beginning to appear in the bed above the fosse and in the Stone Circle.

Many more to look forward to, provided they survive the now plentiful rain, most welcome after 4 dry weeks.

Week 5 of lockdown, and another 3 to go, at least. The pool is open, and closed over again, after a little problem with the roller, only 17 degrees but Peter has been swimming, I’m waiting until it hits 19, at least! we have discovered Zoom and virtual aperos, and the weeding continues.

Everywhere is green now. The pollarded plane trees in the market place have gone from bare to full leaf in a week, the May blossom is out, plants are shooting up on the prairie, although only the Nepeta is in flower

and Wisteria is flowering all over town, although not ours, after the hard pruning from Gilles earlier in the year.

The hoopoes are feeding on the lawn, now that it has been trimmed.

The Cistus are covered in blossom

as are the Phlomis in the Mediterranean Garden.

The few survivors on the Beach are also flowering

along with last year’s planting in the scree bed by the pond

and finally, after 4 or 5 years, there is a surviving Zantedeschia to keep Mr Frog company.

Hard to know whether they have flowered before when we have not been here. Must get in and weed the pot to encourage them!

Caught the Ashphodel in flower as well

and the Bergenia in the Gravel Garden, gorgeous colour but only 2 flower spikes, not sure what to do to encourage it.

Iris are abundant too, but to be saved for another Post, since the welcome rain has now stopped and the garden calls.

Well we are still locked down,4 weeks now, and set to continue I think. But the weather is kind, so different from our first Easter here 10 years ago, when there were hard frosts in the mornings, and, as we had no heating but the wood burner, we shivered our way to bed at night. Now it is almost too warm in the afternoons, clear blue skies, with neither cloud nor vapour trail, but plentiful bird song and a scattering of butterflies.

Purples and pinks still predominate in the garden. The Judas Tree is in full bloom

the lilacs are coming out as is the Tamarix. Dark purple iris still appearing, but the first of the pale blues are breaking bud now as well.

The first of the dwarf iris are out too, in the scree bed by the pond

and there are wild orchids in the meadow

The tulips will be over soon. I’m not sure how I managed to plant orange and purple side by side in the border below Walnut Terrace

and I must remember to plant some more pinks in the bed below the Hornbeam, they are beginning to look rather sparse, but have persisted for I guess nine years now, despite the depredations from the deer.

The Lithospermum are doing well too, in the old rockery which Dan dug out last year, I had doubted they would survive the drought last summer.

and there are survivors too among the alpines which I planted on the cliff face when I cleared it in the autumn, unfortunately the weeds down here are also doing quite well!

Not many flowers in the prairie as best, but there is plentiful growth, as there is in the Gravel Garden where the Miscanthus look taller every day.

The dark blue rosemary here is still flowering

along with an unidentified shrub, the first of the white flowers for Easter, although the cherry blossom is not far behind.