Week 15

The Easter tablecloth; border-worthy dandelions; first bluebells

Hello, I hope you all had lovely Eastery weeks and eaten lots of chocolate. Looking at your warm, springtime comments of last week it feels like we’ve gone backwards this week - I have had to dash out in between freezing cloudbursts today and I haven’t dried a washing outside for days. Boo. What a slow and cold old spring this is.

Quick recap for newbies: in this weekly post I outline three things that have noticed this week that felt particularly this week, seasonal, now, and then in the comments you tell me yours. They can be things we’ve spotted in the woods, the garden, the kitchen, the shops, anywhere really as long as they’re particular to this week.

We start off with a round up of your always-brilliant comments of the week before. Here’s the highlights of your Week 14:

Discombobulated bumblebees, like teenagers waking up on a Sunday morning; goldfinches creating billowing golden leylandii pollen clouds; the first mow of the year; a windowsill full of hopeful green seedlings; the smell of the soil; all of the neighbours out in their gardens; a table full of green asparagus at the farmers market; tadpoles breaking out of their huddles to explore the pond; a fluffy, hazy, unfocused, Impressionist look to the trees; hellebores next to narcissus poeticus; forced rhubarb cheesecake; apple blossom and tulips; Paris chocolate shops full of beautiful Easter creations; a sleek bronze slow worm; planting the broad beans and peas out; brimstone and orange tip butterflies; birdsong and new lambs.

Magic, thank you. Now here’s mine:

The Easter tablecloth

At Christmas I showed you my Christmas crockery and here I am claiming to have an Easter table cloth to boot. Get me. It is not quite true. This tablecloth does get hauled out at rare other times of the year when I’m trying to be fancy, but it is perfect for pastelly Easter too. Get the look: hot cross buns, daffs, pastel tablecloth/crockery, eggs of any description. I failed to get hold of any fluffy chicks, which I must remedy for next year.

Border-worthy dandelions

There is about one week in the year when dandelions look amazing, and I think this is it: fat, golden, all out at once, their leaves lush and glossy. I think it must be their first burst from the soil that makes them do this, and the fact that this first flush of flower comes all at once. Later, next week even, some will have started to go to seed. Later still the leaves will start looking a bit dusty and ratty. But for now they are just beautiful, especially with these forget-me-nots in my neighbour’s garden.

The first bluebells

The first bluebells! In the woods, delicate hints of blue-purple, currently, and not even slightly a carpet or a haze, but it’s coming.

That’s all from me. Leave me your comments below. What have you noticed that made this week this week?

Also a little reminder: on Sunday morning we have a little gathering where you can share your week’s photographs, in the ‘chat’ part of the app, so look out for that.