Hairy violets

A somewhat more restful day, catching up a bit. Spring seems to have gone AWOL at the moment, with a frost first thing, and then a day of mixed sunshine and heavy showers, with spells of hail and a cold northerly wind. I tried to time my dog walk to avoid the worst of the weather, but Rosie and I did get somewhat damp at the start. However, we fortunately missed the much heavier band of rain which passed just to the east of us, and turned the sky very dark indeed.

We visited Old Sulehay Forest to see the spring flowers, but the wood anemones were much less floriferous than last year, when there was an amazing display. However, the hairy violets in Stonepit Close were abundant and looked amazing against the yellow-green of the moss.

Despite the cool weather, we know it must be spring, because our local pair of ducks, Jemima and Donald, have turned up again, and are busy enjoying free hand outs of wholemeal bread. For the last ten years or so they (or their offspring?) have come to the garden in March, investigated our ponds (which are far to small for them to breed in), filled their bellies and then eventually disappear to a more suitable nesting place. I shall be very sad if and when they stop visiting...

Pete and I had a lovely chat with Chris and Lizzy, who are now in the Kinabalu National Park in Borneo. Chris was keen to tell me that they'd been to see Rafflesia arnoldii, the largest and heaviest flower in the world, and one of the species I'd most like to see - he just wanted to make me jealous! He succeeded!

He then made both of us jealous by recounting two evenings spent at a lodge in the rainforest, which was the only light source for some distance. Apparently their balcony was covered with moths - probably well over 500 species and tens or even hundreds of thousands of individuals. At one point the over-stimulation all became too much for Chris and he had to go and lie down! It certainly makes our moth trap seem very paltry!!