Spring is Springing.

These tulips are wine glass shaped and the colour of red wine as well.

Leafs unfurling, more flowers appearing daily, swallows swooping and the cuckoo cucking, spring is here. New life all around, we have had our first hatch of Quail,

Day old Hubbard chicks.

we now have eighteen Hubbard day old chicks which we picked up from the hatchery in Monaghan on Wednesday, the chicks will be ready for the table in about three months and are always worthwhile doing. It was a beautiful day, but rather too hot for the six hour round trip, we are getting too old for these long drives, however, if we wish to produce our own eating chicken this is what we have to do. We always pick up chicks for other people as well to make the trip worthwhile.

I'd love to live here.

On the way back we stopped for a rest and a picnic of home made scotch eggs, and a welcome cup of tea beside a lovely lake

where we were greeted by a pair of ducks., we are normally very good at naming the species, but this time we were stumped, we suspect they have hybridised from someone's domestic ducks, there were several properties with lake frontage. What a beautiful spot to live.

Our first asparagus.

We have had our first feast of home grown asparagus, it was lovely and so different from the shop bought, worthwhile the three year wait. There is lots more to come, but I don't think we will get fed up with it.

A few of our runner ducks, not the eggs that I'm incubating.

With the hatching season now in full swing I decided it was time to invest in a second incubator, we have duck eggs to hatch as well as hens and it's a long wait to set more eggs with just one incubator. The next couple of months will be busy with ducklings and chicks hatching,  rearing them all takes time, plus weeding and successional veg planting, then comes the harvesting. Life would be easy if we used supermarkets, but not so much fun, and we like good food.

Lovely pink and white with a variegated leaf.

There are still different types of daffodils coming into bloom and  the tulips have started,

Yes, this is a tulip!

I'm always surprised when things start to blossom,

My favourite one this year, so far.

I select them, I plant them and then forget what and where I have planted, so the garden is always a surprise.

A beautiful colour.

I had forgotten how many different types of tulips I had planted,

it's great to go into the garden and find something new showing colour.

I discovered more Fritillaries in bloom today as I wandered around. It's a good job that I'm more organised when it comes to the vegetable garden.