How is nature doing?

The red sheen across the hills has gone, now the best of the poppies have died and it has been replaced by a hue of lilac with these lovely flowers.

The bellota's (mountain oaks) have finally got their catkin's on before the acorns start to grow

and surprisingly, we have a fabulous crop of scottish thistles.

The almonds are growing nicely and it looks like our crop may not be as bad as we were expecting after the very long cold, wet winter.

We still have some flowers that have not opened yet and so I still have some surprises to come.

I have started clearing a small patch for my vegetables,

and we'll see whether I can grow some lettuce, radish, carrots and tomatoes here and keep the rabbits off them. I am still trying to get my rhubarb to start, but so far there is no sign although all my herbs are growing nicely so we should soon have fresh parsley, dill, chives, basil and thyme to cook with.

And, although half of the drainpipes are neatly stacked,

we still have the runaways to bring back up the hill and stack properly.

But they can wait!