Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Phew, wot a scorcher!

Seriously warm out side with blue sky & fluffy white clouds. I've moved my seedlings outside for a spot of sun & getting them used to fresh air, I'll gradually harden them off over the next fortnight or so

Even better news, the  mixed colours beetroot sown as replacement for the failed sowing are just poking up now, and even speedier are the sunflowers, only sown on Saturday and now popping up, in a heated propagator mind you.It'll soon be time when I run out of space

Looking spring like in my road right now, the cherry opposite has kept it's blossom and two doors down magnolia has opened up in the sun, here it is taken this morning

goldfinches

Gloriously warm and sunny here today too. We've gone from woolly hats to sunhats in two days flat. The city centre is full of people in t-shirts, shorts and sunglasses licking ice cream cones.
I spent an hour or so enjoying the scene and then spotted my first Peacock Butterfly of the year and managed to get some not very good photos.

Incredible to see one so early and I hope it survives the icy blast that I'm convinced is just a few days away, still it was lovely to see it flitting around.

twopenny

Another day of hard work. Other side of garden expanded and plants in.

Planted my wisteria finally but found the area was solid hard core so that took a bit of digging. I've used some John Innes 3, blood fish and bone and a touch of growmore and hope it's tough enough to deal with the conditions.

Tied down the musk rose that isn't supposed to be climbing to give me more privacy from my nutty neighbour and wired some light trellis to the cheap fence panel she replaced my fence with while she was out

It feels great to get rid of stuff that's been in pots since moving. Less watering.

23C and felt hotter in an enclosed garden so in strappy teeshirt. Probably be snow by the weekend.

Davesnave

The Met Office tells me it was a comfortable 19c here. Perhaps this modest figure was fortuitous, as we had a walking afternoon in the forest and my right knee isn't working properly now. It was fine at the time. I think it's over 4 months since we last trudged our way to health, and to be serious for a moment, I'm delighted I made it round the rather ambitious circuit we planned.

We saw peacock butterflies too, but I've been seeing them for a week or two at home. They've probably overwintered in the barns. More interestingly, given the time of year, we saw a hairy caterpillar crossing the path and it was about 6cm long. I will see if I can ID it later.

Not many photos taken, just the old Douglas Fir which I've posted before, I think, though maybe not here. Planted circa 1840. The way my leg feels, it could be almost as old and it's in similar condition!

Where was everyone? At the beach? We only saw one person and a ranger* in a van.

*Forestry Commission, not Power!

goldfinches

One of these?

There were a lot of these near a huge nettle patch last year and around the middle of June they suddenly all seemed to want to cross the path to the shorter grass on the other side so I kept having to avoid squishing them.

Davesnave

goldfinches said:

One of these?

No, it was more evenly hairy and dark brown.; so boring that I didn't take a picture, which was silly. But the size this early in the year was a surprise.

After a quick look I think it might have been the final instar caterpillar of the Fox Moth - a particularly dingy one!

Farway

Another day of sunshine forecast, clouds are breaking up right now so could be right

Yesterday's sun & warmth brought out all the creatures, mixed butterflies but failed to identify them except one was yellow, identified and suitably dispatched the first lily beetle of the year, bumble bees loving my gooseberry flowers, and a willow tree nearby has a haze of bees around it on the catkins

I'll try with the camera later on and see if any creature will pose nicely

Managed to give the last buddlia it's haircut in yesterday's sunshine, I've kept a couple of shoots to strike for cuttings, it's a dark purple variety, Black Knight and will go into the volunteer border alongside the white ones in there. Eventually hoping for a bee & butterfly friendly buddlia "hedge" against a fence, with easy care cut it all back in the winter

More germination this morning, the Welsh onions are up in the propagator, so that's sunflowers & onions soon need moving to more light

Apodemus

Envious of your temperatures, down there.  Technically I think we managed 15C yesterday, but there was a strong cold wind, which made it feel much colder.   Today it is 4C, very wet and still windy here and the forecast is showing only one night in the next ten days above zero!  I'm beginning to think that I really need to get a greenhouse...or move a couple of thousand miles south! 

greenbee

No sun here @Farway - it looked like it was thinking about it earlier, but obviously gave up the fight. Still 17.5C, but dull.
I had to take the car out for some exercise today, and fill it up, so braved the DIY store and bunged a few more bales of compost and farmyard manure in the car. I'd hate to run out over the bank holiday when I'm hoping to get some outside jobs done, despite the dire forecast. 

Farway

greenbee said:

No sun here @Farway - it looked like it was thinking about it earlier, but obviously gave up the fight. Still 17.5C, but dull.
I had to take the car out for some exercise today, and fill it up, so braved the DIY store and bunged a few more bales of compost and farmyard manure in the car. I'd hate to run out over the bank holiday when I'm hoping to get some outside jobs done, despite the dire forecast. 

Same here, the promise fizzled out, but it's warm anyway