From giant to lesser to the unnamed, the wild flowers are slowly but surely appearing. Each year I say we should have a photo collection of all the flowers in and around our garden, I started something last summer but am determined to try harder this year. After months of flowerlessness (?!) it’s great to see some colour at last. We’ve already mentioned the chamomile but here are some more plants that have recently appeared.

Two get a special mention: the giant orchid and linaria amethystea. The former you can’t miss, it’s big and brash and is the first of the orchids. The latter is a wee thing that you can easily miss, tiny compared to the daisies, but have a closer look; it’s just beautiful. It doesn’t seem to have a common name so I’m calling it the galega toadflax. And we’re really pleased that we have found this great site for Portuguese flowers. It tells you what you can see in each region, and there’s loads of photos and information about the individual plants.

There’s been a competition between the blossom in the garden as well. In the end the blackthorn won and now the spiky bushes are covered white, it almost looks snowlike. Second was our new almond tree but the ornamental cherry and apricot have a few flowers on now too. We made some sloe gin from the blackthorn last year (which slips down a treat in front of the roaring fire) so we’re hoping for a bumper crop this time.

And talking of booze and blossom I have now, at long last, bottled the elderflower wine that has been sitting silently in the pantry – since last May! I was pleased that it had cleared and has the most delicate of colours (Richard: pale pee), and in fact it didn’t taste too bad – it actually tasted of wine! (Which is more than can be said for the quince effort). Really looking forward to sipping that when the warmer weather eventually gets here.

Meanwhile, on with the wellies and waterproofs…

Continuing our flower theme I have added a load of photos taken on a recent walk. I had wanted to take a snap of every flower we came across but it proved too time-consuming a task so these are most but by no means all. Richard wanted me to label each one – ha to that! They can be found on this page wild flowers, but here’s a woodcock orchid to give you a taster…

I can’t believe that spring is almost here but there are signs everywhere. Many of our fruit trees have buds that are about to burst and already there are wild flowers in the fields. It all looks so green, and yellow…

Our daffodils are refusing to look down and acknowledge the flowering weeds.

The lichen looks like an underwater coral scene, including a Gregorian fan of sorts. Just missing the clown fish…

Our willow is a most wonderful gold colour. I’ve made my first basket (although I did have some déjà vu about primary school…), here with today’s eggs; they’re laying four a day now.  And we have bought some dogwood, red and yellow.

Finally, if yellow is the theme then we must also include the princess, here with her car face on.