The new bridge

The bridge

We've a new bridge in the garden. It doesn't go anywhere except to the Other Side.  I love it. Every day on my way along the riverside after walking the dogs I cross it. Or sometimes I stand on it and watch the water go underneath. I haven't done it yet when the river is roaring, but I'm planning to.

Everything is growing. The potatoes were showing through, leaves a bit scorched by frost, so I earthed them up yesterday. Good to see a tidy row of ridges. Tried to weed in the polytunnel (completely weeded before, though you'd hardly know it) but it was Too Hot. Unbelievable. I had all the fires in the house lit on Tuesday I was so cold.

The first of May, Bealtaine, makes summer official, but I knew it by the first midge bites and nettle stings. There are tiny little nettles hiding in among the strawberries in the polytunnel ready to sting the barehanded weeder, and it's too hot in there for gloves. Dock leaf balm at the ready.

Slightly out-of-focus orchid

The first early purple orchid is flowering on the bank in the Hollow.  There are bluebells everywhere and the common spurge is taking over - that's what's in focus in the orchid photo.

Small beginnings

The greenhouse is getting full. I had to turf out the overwintered terracotta pots today to make room for the staging extension. The runner beans seeds are in pots - the timing is always a challenge with the beans as you can't plant them out until all chance of frost is passed which means the first week of June. Put them in too soon and they're twining themselves around other plants, the spade handle, the staging itself while your back is turned. Put them in too late and you've lost valuable growing time, though to be honest they always catch up.

 A few pretty pictures of the garden:

Waterfall

Saxifrage

Azalea

Fern

Auntie Sybil's azalea, resurrected