Spring has finally arrived here in St André and everywhere is bursting with green and with blooms. There are just four bluebell plants in my lane which are quickly becoming hidden by the other verge growth of grass, dandelions, celandines etc. etc.
This is a bank outside my neighbour's house studded with primroses, muscari and forget-me-nots.
When I walked out to the animals this morning there was a toad at the back of the little flowerbed on the drive. He was plump and looked in really good health in the shadowy bit at the back of the flowerbed.
Dandelions are everywhere brightening up the verges and field with their bright yellow flowers. I am considering making wine with the blossom this year. The first and last time I made dandelion wine was back on 7 May 1982, when I was pregnant with my first child. I made it on the morning of the day I moved house while I was waiting for the removal lorry to arrive. It smelt terrible while it was fermenting in the wine bin but tasted wonderful when it was ready to be drunk.
The rabbits have a couple of large handfuls of dandelion leaves and flowers everyday - they just love them.
This little white flower which seems to be one of the first wild flowers to bloom around here is Stellaria holostea - Greater Stitchwort - and should have five pairs of petals as in this first photograph. However, just a few metres from this is the plant in the second photograph with only four pairs of petals - a mutant has somehow been produced.
One of my favourite trees, beech, which comes into leaf first along the lanes and I just love it's vibrant green airy leafed branches.
Here are bracken fronds unfurling - aren't they beautiful?
The horsechestnut leaves are dramatic against the blue skies we have finally started to enjoy. I was beginning to think that blue skies were a figment of my imagination after the very wet and grey winter.
Oil seed rape fields are brightening up the Breton landscape. I love to come round a bend in the road and see these zingy crops.
Today, the bowls club I belong to are having a lunch at St Gilles Vieux Marché. As I am still dressed in my scruffs from doing the animals this morning I think I had better go and shower and change.
Sorted and ready to go
Three things I like:
1. Friends expecting their second child, a boy, were told yesterday that if he hasn't arrived by Monday he will be induced, so not long now until my first cuddle to welcome a new life into my bit of the world.
2. The wisteria well in bloom along the cottage walls in the garden - it looks so beautiful.
3. Watching the incubating eggs turning automatically in their new incubator - I can't wait for the chicks to hatch out - around 20 May.
