This last month is one of the most frustrating, one day all systems go with new growth appearing everywhere, the next battening down the greenhouse against Hurricane Katie and hail storms. On a trip north to Yorkshire it is very obvious that spring moves slowly up country, the new leaves on the Hawthorn down in Dorset are barely in bud  in the dales, the pussy willow is lightening the glades. The grey ochre green of winter is giving way to bright tones.

 

It is fun to see the difference in the Magnolias  petals bursting out of the buds  here but still in tight wraps up north. Everyday brings a new sensation if you open your eyes. Blossom on the early flowering cherry trees and Forsythia lightening the sky above.
Even watching the greening of the grass is interesting.  A lawn feed now can make a startling difference in the strength of new lawn growth with a much richer colour for those people who value a velvet lawn. For my own lawn I quite like keeping it hungry, that way the wild flowers in it do not get out competed, and I like to see cowslips in my wild lawn.

I still rake the moss into heaps though for the birds to use as nest material.