Dear Readers, following the news about my heart earlier this week I have decided to make a point of popping out into the garden to see what’s going on every day, instead of sitting hunched over my laptop like a vulture. And today, I was amazed by the number of house sparrows who seem to be visiting the garden. Earlier this year I would have said that I got maybe 3 or 4 occasionally, but today there must have been a flock of twenty, including a couple of fledglings. I am so glad to be able to make them welcome.

Blurry baby on the yew shrub to the left!

Furthermore, I love the subtle colours on the back of the male sparrows, in their shades of chestnut and charcoal and fawn.

And look at those little grey caps! If you ever see a sparrow with a brown cap you’re looking at a tree sparrow, which is even more exciting if you’re interested in relative rarities, though house sparrows are on the Red List as we know.

The teasel is coming on a treat, and the very first flowers are starting to appear. Soon a whole ring of pale lilac flowers will decorate each ‘bloom’.

First flowers!

How architectural they are, these flowerheads! They are masterpieces of geometry.

Elsewhere in the (admittedly extremely overgrown) garden, the first of the greater willowherb flowers has appeared…

My ‘dwarf’ buddleia (now nine feet tall) is coming into bloom…

And the hebe next door is putting out its lilac firecracker flowers, much loved by the bees.

And so, it was well-worth popping outside to see what was going on, as it always is. I heartily recommend it!