…is that it is absolutely compulsive viewing! I will update on that later tonight. However today I have been out with my camera to record the progress in the garden too. It is looking quite lovely at the moment and although my focus is firmly on the Nestbox just now I don’t want to leave the plants out completely. This is a gardenwatch diary and I try to include everything in it which is quite tricky at times.

Before I go any further I really must apologise for not replying to my recent comments and emails. I am only now getting back to the PC. I would like to stress that I very much appreciate each and every one and I fully intend answering them all. Thank-you! I would also like to apologise for not visiting many of my favourite blogs at the moment too – I know I have missed loads.

So plant wise you will be able to see in today’s photos that the alliums are starting to flower and the tulips are still going strong although today’s wind could hasten their demise! You might not see too clearly but the wisteria flower racemes are getting longer too. I will get some close-up shots of them soon.

I just love the lush new foliage on my plants at this time of year but as you can see colour is still there too. To me it makes for a very calming and contemplative place to be in whether you are walking through it, working in it or sitting enjoying an evening meal. The garden really is a great place to relax in. I love this time of year.

The next three photos show the view from my garden gate to the arbour followed by the view from it to the right and then the left. This is a nice place to sit and not only by ourselves! Often my neighbour’s cat is seen here soaking up the warm sunshine observing the birds at the feeders.

As I mentioned last week, we have also been very busy clearing a space for my rather splendid new potting shed which you can see below and then the view from inside it along the length of my ‘L’ shaped garden. I decided to have a light bright shed to replace the dreary dark brown one.

It has been quite hectic over the weekend with the shed arriving yesterday. We were very fortunate to have a gloriously warm few days to do this. It was quite a job taking down the old shed and then cutting it into car sized bits to take it to our local dump where it went in the wood recycling skip.

The view from my potting shed that I haven’t shown is of the bird feeders to the right. My plan is to make this shed a combined potting shed/bird hide. I know the birds will be able to see me quite clearly so I will have to keep quite still. I am looking forward to trying out my new video camera from this view point.

Finally, all the photos above have been from my back garden. My front garden has a completely different feel getting much more sunshine and very little shade. Recently the catmint has just exploded in growth and is now starting to come into flower. Soon the bees will be visiting its flowers. I wonder if my slow growing sweet peas will flower and cascade from my obelisks sometime this summer. I hope so and wonder who will visit these flowers.

So, if you are pottering around your garden at the moment, as I suspect you may be, enjoy your garden too!

All photos above were taken in my garden on May 27th 2008.