Shelter

There are a lot of 7-spot ladybirds lurking around the garden at the moment, many of them in the honeysuckle or the laurel hedge, and a few in the rosemary and the sweet violet patch in the secret garden. But I also spotted one the other day (geddit?) nestled among the leaves of a pretty variegated euphorbia I planted in the rose bed last summer, and today when I was looking for rainy day subjects I went searching and found it again. 

This sight makes me happy, partly because I really like the way the raindrops are clinging to the euphorbia's hairy leaves, but more importantly because the plant has survived the winter - never a given, here in the Shire. An oriental poppy I planted at the same time and less than a metre away has not, and will have to be replaced when I do the spring garden tidy. Assuming, that is, that it ever stops raining long enough for the ground to become fit for tidying.

As it was far too bleak and wet for me to carry out my Mothers' Day plan of a nice long birding walk at Draycote, I ended up spending most of the day at my desk. This would normally make me pretty grumpy, but phone calls and a lovely gift of spring flowers from L and H turned what might have been a grim day into a very happy one.