Rain's Arrived

After the driest April for a long time, May has begun with thunderstorms and heavy rain. We had a lot yesterday evening, from about 4.30pm through to at least midnight.

The good news is that it's refilling the water butt and saves me watering so much. The bad news is that the patch on the water butt hasn't worked and it's still leaking.

I took some more photos in the garden the other day, as it's now blooming away. All those dreary clusters of sticks have transformed into abundant green.

The buddleia bush in the back garden is producing yellow balls of flowers - I've not seen that before.

What appeared to be a dead shrub in the front garden is now coming back to life as a fushia. The dead bush is around a metre high, which must represent years of growth, but most of the new life is at the base. Perhaps the hard winter killed off most of what's above ground.

We think another large bush at the front is another buddleia but it's some way from flowering. It's very tall so will need cutting back.

It's been a week of watching the veg continue to grow. The carrots are coming on and I've cleared more space in that corner. One of the new composters is in place and the other will follow once I clear the remaining ivy from it's intended spot.