Tags
blossom, butterfly, daffodils, flowers, fruit trees, gardening, plants, spring flowers, Suffolk, sunset
Let me take you back in time……
The daffodils this spring were marvellous! We had a few warm days at the beginning of April that brought the flowers forward and then from Easter onwards the weather was decidedly chilly. Very dry but chilly and with very little sunshine.
The white daffodils look just like butterflies when a breeze catches them! Most of these flowers are scented as well.
The blossom on the fruit trees was good this spring.
Damson blossom
Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom
Other trees with blossom looked wonderful this spring too.
The Blackthorn at the end of our drive
The Pussy Willow was covered in fuzzy flowers
I took photos of some of the plants in the garden.
The Spirea in Richard’s new shrub border was very bright and beautiful.
A pretty primula had planted itself in one of the ditches that surround our garden
We have a number of orange and red cowslips that grow here and there about the garden. I have started to gather them into one place so they don’t get mowed before they set seed.
The King-cups on the bank of the pond looked cheerful.
Primroses and Anemone blanda
The clematis flowered at the end of the month and filled the garden with scent.
Clematis flowers
Last autumn I ordered some tulips and planted them in large tubs. I was glad I did when I saw the damage the deer had wreaked on those planted in the borders! I covered the tubs in wire mesh and left them at the back of the house to over-winter. I had no mouse, vole or deer damage at all!
These lovely tulips look more like peonies! Because of the cool spring they were in flower for nearly a month.
This is a male Holly Blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus). There were a number of these flying in the garden at the end of April.
A sunset seen from the back of the house
This post has taken me weeks to write because I have been so busy and tired! I thought about abandoning it a couple of times because of its lateness but decided to post it after all and I hope you will forebear with me.
My choice of music is ‘Schmetterling’ (Butterfly) by Grieg, one of his Lyric Pieces.
Thanks for visiting!
A Suffolk Lane 
Bravo on getting there with this post in the end – what a treat for the eyes those pictures are. And the perfect musical accompaniment – one of my favourite piano pieces! 🙂 Hope you are starting to feel a bit better xxx
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Thank-you, Liz! Yes I am feeling better. We haven’t had workmen in the house for a few weeks now which has been wonderful! I love Grieg’s music very much. It was so difficult choosing which piece to feature!
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Really pleased to hear that. Having people around the house can be very challenging, can’t it – even when they are doing things you want them there for! xxx
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😀 xxxx
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Thanks for finishing this terrific post, Clare! What a beautiful spring you had. Due to drastic temperature flucuations, our wasn’t nearly as lovely as yours. The daffodils are fabulous! Thanks for sharing your amazing photographs! I hope you’re feeling better. xo
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Thank-you very much, Jill! We have had quite a lot of work done on the house recently which made me very tired and stressed. All is now finished until the next phase begins later this year 😮
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Take care of yourself, Clare!
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Thank-you, Jill – and you too! xo
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I’m glad you persisted on the post–the flowers are amazing, especially the fruit trees and that lovely butterfly–wow!
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Thank-you so much, Kerry! I was very pleased the butterfly shot came out as well as it did; that little creature hardly stopped moving!
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Oh, so beautiful! Glad you decided to share.
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Thank-you very much, Laurie!
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I particularly like the ‘compare and contrast’ photos of all the spring blossoms. And I do hope you feel better soon, with lots of energy.
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Thank-you very much, Margaret. I am feeling much better already. I was interested by the comparisons too; there are subtle differences between all the different types of blossom.
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You know Clare, this happens all the time. I need some peace and a few quiet minutes and there it is: a post from you. Thank you ❤ xXx Your pictures are beautiful and those tulips. Just lovely, just like you. Hugs and much ❤ Xxxx ❤
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How very sweet you are! xx ❤ xx Thank-you so much, Jane! xo
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I very much enjoyed taking this trip back into spring with you Clare. I hope that you’ll soon be less busy and able to re-charge your batteries 🙂
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Thank-you very much, Andrea! I am feeling much better already and we have a holiday soon too! I received your ghost story collection in the post last week and have read a few of the stories including yours, which is fabulous! I will include a link to Amazon in case anyone else reading this is interested. xx https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Iron-Ghost-Stories-Century/dp/0993124585/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499123875&sr=1-3&keywords=cold+iron
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Thanks so much for your support Clare, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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🙂
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Such beautiful spring flowers, Clare! Thank you for sharing them with your readers. I am glad you posted it! Lovely music, too. Our prolonged cool and wet spring weather also kept blooms here going for longer than usual.
The only way I seem to be able to grow crocus and tulips here is to put them in planters. The deer don’t bother them so much as the gophers going after the bulbs.
I hope you feel better soon, and have more energy. I know what that is like. 🙂
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Thank-you very much, Lavinia! I am feeling much better and I hope your health is continuing to improve too. Growing crops and gardening is a real battle sometimes with all the wildlife wanting to eat all we grow before we can get to it. I often wonder what it must have been like for the first people to clear areas of forest and try to grow food for themselves!
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I am grateful for every good day. 🙂
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🙂
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I’m glad you’re better now, Clare – now that your house belongs to you again. Too bad your spring wasn’t sunny, but the daffodils and other blossoms look like they tried hard to make up for it! What is that small tree with the plum colored blossoms on it – such a color!
The king cups – I was just looking at our tall buttercups today near the brook’s edge. They must be king cups! “Where am I going? I don’t quite know. Down to the stream where the king cups grow. Up on the hill where the pine trees blow. Anywhere, anywhere, I don’t know!” I wonder if I’m too old to learn what the heck is growing on our own property. 😀
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Thank-you, Lisa! The tree with the plum-coloured blossom is a crabapple tree called ‘Harry Baker’ https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/178939/Malus-Harry-Baker/Details
The fruits make wonderful jelly!
Thank-you for reminding me of the king cup rhyme! I’m sure you’re not too old! 😀
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A crabapple! They are my favorite flowering tree, but I haven’t seen that color! Beautiful. When I was little our neighbors had a crabapple and I loved chewing on the fruits! (I probably lacked vitamin C.)
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Oh Lisa! Just the thought of eating a raw crabapple gives me a pain! 😀
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What a delight to scroll through such a floral feast, thank you.
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Thank-you very much, Susan!
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I wish you could take me back in time. Spring was cold and damp here but the bulbs bloomed forever and I’d gladly go back for another turn.
Your crabapples and other fruit trees were beautiful, and so was that clematis! I hope it’s still blooming.
Those are beautiful shots of the blue butterfly and the sunset!
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Thank-you very much, Allen! Sadly the clematis has finished flowering but it was glorious while it lasted. Isn’t it strange that we all seem to have had a cool spring! Ours wasn’t damp though and it might have been better if it had been because we still haven’t had the rain we need.
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It is odd to have a cool spring on both sides of the Atlantic, I would think. I’m hoping nature will balance it out with a warm dry winter. We’ve had inches of rain per week for months!
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There is either too much or too little rain! Parts of the UK have been quite wet and cool but I live in the easternmost part of the island and the rain has all disappeared by the time the fronts get to us! I hope you dry out soon!
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Simply wonderful, Clare; lovely photographs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red/orange cowslip. Enjoyed the music too – despite my alter ego as an aging rock star, I have always liked Grieg. Glad you posted – hope you’re not too tired and you’re keeping well 🙂
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You are very kind, Mike – thank-you. Yes I am feeling much better especially as we are having a break from the improvements to the house. We are lucky to have many cowslips in our garden and I think some of them have cross-bred with garden primulas and have produced these lovely fire-coloured cowslips!
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I am glad that you managed to get the post out in the end because I really enjoyed seeing your wonderful flowers and blossom. I hope that the summer, such as it is, has brought you some cheer.
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Thank-you very much for your kindness, Tom. I believe that our summer has been much better than yours has been so far. In fact, it has been very warm for some weeks now with just a very short spell of cooler, damper weather a couple of weeks ago. It has been too dry this year and the grass has gone brown! Nevertheless, I have enjoyed being able to work in the garden during the past two weeks and I love the warm weather!
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It was chiller than ever here today so I envy you your warmth.
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How unfortunate for you. We are forecast a major storm on Thursday so it’s not all good news here.
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It was better today and is going to get warmer tomorrow.
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Hooray!
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I am envious of your warmth. We could do with it here.
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If I could, I would send some warmth your way.
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Hi Clare, its so long since I had chance to catch up with your news, that I’m struggling a little to to take it all in. What are you having done in your home? I hope you are ok and so is Richard and the girls. We finally sold our house and have gone into storage, except a couple of suitcase and the dog, its bizarrely liberating but the selling and house hunting is all consuming, hence my absence from WP.
I missed Spring this year in a whirl of packing, sorting and deciding, so quite lovely to have a review of yours to read this evening. Best wishes, Julie.x
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It is so good to hear from you, Julie! I hope you and your family are well too.
House hunting and moving is awful – you must be exhausted! I hope you find somewhere to move to soon as living out of a suitcase isn’t much fun after a while. We are fine thank-you. Richard’s back and leg are slowly improving but he keeps over-doing things in the garden and then has to rest until the pain goes away. The girls are okay – Alice still hasn’t found a full-time job and struggles on with two part-time ones and Elinor is slightly better than she was but has failed to get onto the course she wanted to take this autumn so is feeling a little depressed. We have had all 11 of our internal doors replaced and then the downstairs cloakroom decorated after the suite was replaced last year. We have also had the main bathroom gutted and then a new suite fitted and the room re-tiled. The en-suite was also gutted and the fitments replaced. We are decorating now! None of it was straight-forward and took much longer than we had hoped. Best wishes and take care, Clare xx
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I enjoyed seeing your beautiful flowers and gorgeous trees. You must be a botanical expert Clare! – H.J. 🙂
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Thank-you HJ! But I’m no expert 😀
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Oh my, you make me wish that spring could last forever with all the beautiful flowers! I particularly liked the tulips that you grew in tubs, what a great idea! Every time that I tried planting tulips, the critters would eat 95% of them. But, it’s really hard to pick any favorites, the flowering trees and bushes put on fine displays also.
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Thank-you Jerry! Yes, critters do love sweet crunchy tulip bulbs!
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The tulips are magnificent. As are you for completing this post. We had one bathroom renovated in this house this year and the process was a nightmare. You have done so much more. Glad everything is coming right and you have a holiday coming up.
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Thank-you! Home improvements seem fine when they are being planned and looked forward to but the reality is really awful! I couldn’t be one of those people who buys up dilapidated houses to do-up and then move on to the next project! The people who came to do the work couldn’t have been nicer and they worked hard and were tidy. But it all went on for so long! And there were unforeseen problems and delays! Ugh! The holiday will be good. I have all sorts of getting ready to do first though 😮
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Arrggh, yes, I could never be a do-upper.
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So much beauty! It was a lovely spring, for sure!
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Thank-you very much, Sheryl!
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I’m so glad you finished this post. I don’t think there’s any need to abandon an old post, your pictures are always so wonderful to see, especially as I’m still stuck in the concrete jungle of the city. Those tulips have such a gorgeous pink colour and I love how may daffodils there are, always loved daffodils in the spring. I hope you are feeling better and the recent heatwave hasn’t made things worse. ❤ ❤
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Thank-you very much, Cat! I am feeling much better thank-you. I love the warm weather and I’ve been spending hours outside doing the gardening! I hope you are feeling better too. ❤ ❤
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Yes I am, thank you 🙂 ❤
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Good! xx ❤
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Like others, I am happy you finished it, we are a patient bunch of readers and always marvel at your photos from the scenic shots to those focused on details that you so skilfully do. I hope you are feeling better now my friend.
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Thank-you so much, Ste J – you are as kind as ever. I am much better though just as behind with my responses to comments as I ever was!
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Consistency is an admirable trait!
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It definitely is!
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You have a lovely garden Clare. Glad to hear your work is nearly complete. Hope you enjoy your holiday. 😊
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Thank-you very much, Charlotte. The holiday will be enjoyed I am sure!
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Hi there dear Clare… Wow… I am loving your garden… The flowers are gorgeous and you keep it so tidy!… Kudos!. By the way , each time I see daffodils I remember the poem by William Wordsworth… “They flash upon that inward eye/Which is the bliss of solitude/ And then my heart with pleasure fills/ And dances with the daffodils”… Here´s to bright days for you!.-… 😀 xx
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Thank-you, my dear Aquileana! I also thought of Wordsworth’s poem when I saw those daffodils! I hope you aren’t having too bad a winter and that you have a wonderful weekend. ❤ xx<3
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I love seeing colors and flowers like this any time of the year. They look like magic and they make me think of the saying, “the Earth laughs in flowers.” I hope you’ve been laughing along with your garden!
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Thank-you very much, Sheila! Your comment certainly made me laugh! And yes, my garden makes me very happy most of the time xx
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It’s never too late for beautiful spring flowers, so thanks for finishing your post! It encourages me to finish some that I’ve put off as well. Hope you’re feeling better now…
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Yes, thank-you Karen, I am feeling much better. We are away from home at the moment so I’m even further behind now!
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I know the feeling…hope you’re somewhere fun!
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Oh yes! We are in Switzerland at Lake Lucerne,
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Oooh, sounds beautiful!
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It’s heavenly!
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Wow, Clare! Your photos are gorgeous! What a beautiful place you live at! Thanks for visiting me over at Jill’s place! 😉 I will be back to visit you again.
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Thank-you so much, Patsy, you are very kind!
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You’re welcome! So are you! Isn’t the blogging world on WordPress wonderful? 🙂
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It is! There are so many lovely people there 🙂
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I agree! 😊
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🙂
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Stunning photos. Your flowers and music are wonderful too🙂
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Thank-you very much for taking the time to comment. You are very kind 🙂
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Your welcome any why thank you🙂
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🙂
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Thanks for visiting me over at Jill’s place!
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My pleasure, Jeffrey!
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So you, like I, were delayed in posting photos from the Spring this year. I’m so glad you took the time to share them in July. Absolutely beautiful!
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Thank-you!
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Thank-you! Thanks for visiting me over at Jill’s place!
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My pleasure!
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Thank-you very much for taking the time to comment.
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My pleasure!
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Thank-you very much for taking the clock time to gossip. Thanks for visiting me over at Jill’s berth!
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My pleasure!
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