Photos for Galanthophiles

 Thought it was time I added some photos of this year's snowdrops in my garden, looking particularly good today, in the sun.

These, in the pot, were given to me by my sister, but I don't know what variety they are.  They are singles, on quite tall, strong stems.

Don't these look good, flowering amongst the cyclamen leaves, with the orange berries of iris foetidissima (with its  unfortnate common names - Stinking Iris, Stinking Gladwin, Roast beef Plant - but the leaves do stink) in the background.

And just a few of my hellebores.

 

At the weekend I visited the plot to plant out some new strawberry plants.  I've swopped the previous strawberry bed with the salad bed, so hoping there will be a good crop this summer.   The wind was a bitter, making my nose and eyes run, and I wasn't really in the mood for working but, checking first that no one was around, I sang along to my i-pod and got on with painting the shed (and the flagstones, and my arms and face).  So that's another job ticked off the list.

 

My 'pet' peacock butterfly is enjoying the sunshine in the conservatory, spreading and fluttering its wings.  I don't think it would appreciate the temperature outside at the moment as, although it looks so beautiful outside, there's a biting wind again.  Still, it's good to see the spring flowers emerging, and there are catkins on the hazels, alongside my garden.  Yesterday, for the first time this year, I saw a wren in the garden, and there were three male blackbirds posturing in the rowan tree, in my front garden, obviously trying to outdo each other as 'best male blackbird'.