Celebrating creation in Lent - Part 5: 4th Sunday in Lent to Saturday 25th March

 Sunday 19th March, the 4th Sunday in Lent

This is Stachyurus chinensis, a handsome early spring shrub with stiff dangling racemes of yellow bells on dark twigs with fiery young leaves. Marty and I visited Caerhays Castle about 5 years ago to see the famous magnolias. It was a dire day, rainy and drisly, and Marty stayed in the car. The magnolias had been scorched by a late frost and most looked as miserable as I felt. However, this shrub in full bloom caught my eye. I bought a young plant from the sales area, as a memento of the dreadful day, and planted it in Marty's labyrinth garden. It is pretty, colours in autumn, but has no scent. I rather wish I had bought a fragrant Corylopsis instead...

Monday 20th March

The ravishing pink flowers of Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' are just beginning to open in our garden. It is a hybrid between M. kobus and M. stellata, both Japanese species, made by Max Löbner in Germany shortly before WWI. It is named for Leonard Messel who inherited the great Nymans garden in Sussex. There is an Irish connection, as his daughter Anne married Michael Parsons, the 6th Earl of Rosse - their son Brendan, the 7th Earl, lives in Birr Castle.

Tuesday 21st March

The rain has been quite unremitting today, so I haven't been able to  take photos in the garden, but here is a photo of Marty's labyrinth garden looking decidedly dank, taken from a downstairs window. It is full of colour as you can see - how blessed we are with our garden!

Wednesday 22nd March

The wild primroses are showing really well now on the mossy, north-facing hedge bank at the back of our house. 

But there is so much else to see in this photo if you enlarge it and look closely, which I strongly urge.

I can see Goosegrass, Lords & Ladies, Ivy, Shining Cranesbill (tiny pink flowers), Herb Robert and (I think) Nipplewort, but I'm sure that's not all. 

Thank God for the marvellous diversity of our wildflowers!

Thursday 23rd March

Another glowing jewel - the first cowslip of the year! Cowslip (Primula veris) is a common native plant of unimproved pastures, but changing agricultural practices has made it scarcer. When the wildflower meadow was first seeded, in what was a bare arable field, I used to count the handfull of cowslips that appeared, and leave them to seed before mowing in autumn. They have spread marvellously since, and are now more than can be counted.

It's a different story this year in a part of the lawn with spring bulbs where cowslips also came of there own accord. I failed to mow it last autumn. A thick thatch of vigorous grasses has completely suppressed the cowslips, and I cannot find a single one. A valuable reminder of the importance of consistent management. I will be interested to see if they come back again from the seed bank, now it has been cut.

Friday 24th March

Another wet day with a bitingly cold wind discouraged me from walking in the garden to find something to snap. But my Lenten project has been saved by Marty's colourful pots outside the front door. A pot of daffodils, Tête-à-tête I think, like a beam of sunshine; Tulips growing away, with some flower spikes starting to colour. The last of the crocuses, which are over elsewhere in the garden. Bright hyacinths scenting the air. And a photinia which we have mistreated for years but refuses to die...

Saturday 25th March

These light blue grape hyacinths, basking in today's warm sunshine, have attracted a honey bee. She is foraging pollen to feed her brood - you can see a basket of yellow pollen on her hind legs. It is a cultivar of Muscari armeniacum, probably 'Valerie Finnis'.

The colour is what I was brought up to call Cambridge Blue, in contrast to dark Oxford Blue. What is now called Cambridge Blue is a much greener shade, used by Cambridge University Boat Club, though the Cambridge Rugby Union Club still use the older colour. 

As an alumnus I'm rooting for Cambridge in the University Boat Race on the Thames tomorrow, though I see Oxford are 4/7 favourites this year...

PS. Yay! A double for Cambridge - both the men and the women won their races. Shame for the other place, which insists on punting from the wrong end...