Super-U

The recent sunshine then rain then sunshine seems to have suited the garden well: everything is bursting into life. These tulips (bought without much expectation of success cheap from Super-U - a supermarket) have proved to be a glorious fluffy, white, pink and gold variety. And perfectly staggered with the yellow variety lurking in bud just below.

Also, delightfully, the garlic I planted last week has already sent out sturdy shoots - boding well for a good harvest I hope. This is particularly welcome since the first crop I planted (in a pot in the winter) rotted where it sat before doing anything much.

So, yesterday's pain is still in evidence, but one day off for sickness is all that's allowed round here (we're tough bosses - even on ourselves) so I was back to work today: scrubbing window frames and painting walls. My parents have booked flights to come over in May (it'll be my dad's first trip away for years and years - so we're all quite excited) so we really need to get on with the guest room.

And today, delightfully, we saw two Hoopoes in the garden. They are not uncommon birds around here, and these ones must be fresh back from their winter break and looking for somewhere peaceful to settle in for the summer... it was therefore not brilliant timing that it all kicked off with the neighbouring kids just then and the birds flew off. Hopefully they'll give us another chance. I remember my mum showing me the pictures of hoopoes in a bird book when I was little and discussing how fabulously exotic they were. If they come back, I promise you a photo of them.