April showers

The view through the window has been looking like this for most of the last week. April is renowned for showery weather but this year the rain seems a constant feature.

After two years with less than average rainfall, there is officially a drought in this area and even though the recent rain feels like a lot, apparently we need very much more to restore water levels.

There was plenty of water in my garden

so I don't think we will be too bothered by the hose-pipe ban for a while.

Heres hoping for a break in the weather this weekend.

photo catch-up

A few photographs of life around here during the last couple of weeks.

The Easter holidays came and went.

The boys came, went, came back and then left again. With work, revision and a university field trip, we didn't manage a single day when the four of us spent the complete day together but there were parts of a few days when we were all in the same place at the same time. Now its back to just the two of us again for a few weeks.

April garden visiting

Its the school holidays here and I have been taking advantage of the weather to get out and about with my camera. This is the garden at Englefield earlier this week. I posted some photographs last year in May when the azaleas made a stunning display but this week, a month earlier in the growing season, there were plenty of daffodils

and delicate blossom.

The real stars this time though were the magnolias, large bushes (trees?) reaching for the skies.

The flowers look so perfect emerging from the bare branches before the leaves.

I don't know much about magnolias and there are many different types, I like this smaller white flowered variety which I think is Magnolia stellata.

A couple of early flowering azaleas were also enjoying the spring sunshine.

I'll finish with a couple more photographs of magnolias

and the clear blue sky.