Mid March in the Cornish Cottage Garden

March has arrived with very strong winds and sheets of rain lashing across the field in front of us.

We have managed to dodge the rain to find time to wander in the garden. The shrubs are all coming into bud promising Spring is on its way.  The early snowdrops are over and the daffodils are past their best. A Magnolia in the centre of our stone circle has broken through its tight buds to show lovely purple flowers.

The Cowslip bush is beautiful and although we had not heard of it before, now that it is in full flower we can see the similarity between the flowers of the bush and those of the delicate cowslip we are familiar with.

Another very special treat is the wildlife. In a small garden close to the front of the house is a rather dead tree. It does have honeysuckle growing through it so does not look too bare and we have hung a bird feeder on one of the branches. This has attracted many birds and we have regular visits from great tits, anything up to five or six at a time taking it in turn to feed. The robins, sparrows and finches  are frequent visitors and happily feed on the seeds discarded by the tits. The blackbirds, jays and magpies seem to be more shy but are still regular visitors.    We even spotted a tiny mouse running in and out of the granite wall to steel a few seeds.

We ought to mention the baby rabbit.  At first we thought it was just the one we kept seeing but soon realised we had a family living under the studio. A large stone bowl full of pretty star flowers was one morning found to contain only nibbled stems. We have had a couple of visits from a heron, checking the pond but we are sure there are no fish but we have spotted a few frogs.

Rain again, time to leave the garden and light the Stove.