Stunning Sunday

I was very slow at rising again this morning and didn't set off for my walk until late morning.  There were more people about so I had to wear my mask quite a bit of the time, but it was such a beautiful day it is not surprising people were out walking.

I saw this plant in a garden this morning during my walk.  I am pretty sure it is a New Zealand plant, I just can't think of the name at the moment.  Kaka beak?  Certainly the leaves and flowers are very familiar to me

A Speckled Wood Butterfly.

Blue Tit, 

Gorgeous Bluebells.

White Rhododendron.

I am missing the ones that I had back at my old place, and it has made me realise there are none in this garden, which I will have to remedy at some stage.

The iris in this garden I sometimes pass on one of my walks are still flowering beautifully.

Hera, the Harris Hawk.

A crow in the pond, not sure what he is eating.

Sun reflecting off a container ship.

Today I tackled the stinging nettles in the top right hand corner of  'The Orchard Garden'.  They were pretty high, but armed with my elbow length leather gloves which I am loving it has made it much easier to deal with them...and I thought I had escaped sting free, but this evening I have stinging tingling on my knee on one leg, back of calf on the other,  and both arms just above the elbows.  Oh well it has been worse!  I filled my canvas garden bin three times, which I then put in the wheelbarrow to take down to the steps and then carried down the steps and round to the front of the house and put in the green garden waste bin - I had to get into it to crush it down, perhaps that is when I got stung on the legs!

There are all sorts of new flowers coming out in the garden.

Delighted to see some roses flowering.

My pansies are looking lovely in my garden planter.

Today I also put in some bamboo stakes and attached string at different levels for the peas to grow up.

Last night I found a set of five photos of my house and garden taken in 2012 from the previous time it sold.  I had been told that the owners previous to the ones we bought the property from had an amazing garden...and I have seen some evidence of this.  Certainly I am pretty sure that they had a very good irrigation system set up, which sadly seems to have been partially removed as is evidenced by some cut hose piping I have found.  

Here is a picture of the back garden, which looks so much neater and more organised than when we bought it, so it is good to get some idea of what it looked like.  I must take one from a similar spot tomorrow if I remember as a comparison!  I think the people we bought it from did a lovely job of updating the inside of the house, but didn't spend the same amount of time on the garden.  It is a shame, as I believe it was a very productive garden.  Hopefully I will eventually be able to restore it to how it once looked, to some extent.  This patch of grass with the chairs on I call the half oval...I see there looks to be paving to the left, I will have to see if it is still there tomorrow!

I am very stiff and sore this evening. I haven't felt like this for a very long time, I wonder if this is another side effect of coming off the steroids.  I hope not, as it was good not to have all this muscle pain and stiffness.