One swallow

Listening to John Martyn on the radio as I sit here at the laptop. Seems as though this evening's blog will include a reflection on the Joy of Radio. I know, I know, how middle-aged is that?? Yep, that's what I am. This evening, while messing about with paint and pencil, I've lived through the loneliness of Irish emigration in the 1940s (RTÉ.ie Radio 1: Documentary on One - The Things we remember); imagined the life of a musician born in Ireland as a tall person in a family of dwarves due to a genetic mishap; learned a bit about genetics as a follow-up to that play (think about it: you're related to just about all life on our planet - to an ash tree, to the HIV virus, to the tulip I was trying to draw today; our DNA departed from that of chimpanzees a mere seven million years ago; and more...). I've also heard Steve Cooney play Fáinne Geal an Lae, followed by Nick Drake, and then later John Martyn: they were all courtesy of Philip King on The South Wind Blows.

The South Wind really Blew last week. Fierce gales swept up the country on Sunday and Monday. But they must have eased the journey north for some of our migrants -- on Tuesday morning, I saw my first swallow! It was swooping and diving over the field where Iz and I walk in the early hours, doing the 'Summer's Coming' aerial dance. What a welcome sight.  The news from outdoors this week was all about Spring. Finally, finally it's on the way. And if you needed any further proof, look what B shot this week in the park - we had spotted the slowly emerging ash flowers on Tuesday evening and B went back to do his macro thing. It's really beautiful:

Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) flowers start to emerge. Photo courtesy of catchlight.ie (Thanks B.!)

Sunshine and warmth have meant that at last things are on the move: a bumblebee droned slowly through the sun-warmed air in the garden the other day; close to the forget-me-nots a hoverfly sat still on the same air; not so welcome were the first aphids I spotted in the greenhouse: hopefully their emergence will feed hungry birds like that swallow that arrived this week from warm climes as far away as North Africa.

Out in the Spring sunshine, I did some tidying up in the garden, cutting back blackened and tattered old fern foliage, staring impatiently at an Erythronium I planted last year, re-discovering a tiny Epimedium that I thought I'd lost, potting up some alpines I bought a couple of weeks ago at the AGS show and plant sale; potting on a couple of cucumber seedlings that had started on the bedroom windowsill and now must put up with the vagaries of a cold greenhouse, and finding a remnant of last summer's poppies:

Remnants of an opium poppy capsule 

Sadly, a quick check of both our 'ponds' reveals that just about all of the frog spawn that appeared there in February has succumbed to frost (or perhaps to a fungal disease too, according to Michael Viney; I would find it hard to tell), so it doesn't look as though we'll have tadpoles this year. Into the small shallow pondlet I put a small pot of Primula secundiflora, just to see what happens. I planted another one nearby into the soil, but it may be too sunny and dry there. It'll be interesting to see which does better. Speaking of plants in water, here are some Equisetum, looking as ancient as they are (they've been around for hundreds of millions of years):

Equisetum happy in the mud and water of a local woodland

Happy alpine

Saxifraga spp. and Dianthus, in their new home

Indoors, there was a bit of messing about with paint. I find it incredibly frustrating, but know that to get any better at all I need to keep doing and doing. But when I get too dispirited with the paint, I return to pencil where there's still so much work to be done, but at least I understand the medium a little better.

messing about with tulips

Back to the drawing board 

Sigh. 

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to get a chance to see Holly Sommerville, a wonderful botanical artist who lives and works here in Ireland, give a demonstration of her approach to painting. What a delight, though like all masters of their work, she made it look deceptively easy.

Sigh.

Enough of this sighing nonsense, I can't sign off without wishing two dear friends Happy Birthday: hope it was a good one LB, and I know it was a good and significant one CE!

Have a good week all.