Althurium

My wife has a way with orchids and those we have live for years.

I had to look this house-plant up as I did not know its name.

It is not an orchid - well I don't think it is! As you can tell, I am no plant expert!

Dunnock

We get a few of these dunnocks (aka hedge sparrows) on our rear lawn. Mostly they lurk in the undergrowth, but they come out onto the grass. We get far fewer small birds these days, although we have a robin in one of the nest-boxes and I saw another robin feeding a young one yesterday on the lawn.

Brampton Woods

Brampton gets several mentions in the diaries of Samuel Pepys. Today we went to Brampton Woods in search of bluebells. This ancient woodland is at least 900 years old and is a few miles west of Brampton village. We ate at a pub used by Pepys.

Roses

Our roses are out early this year. Daffodils were late, but things suddenly seemed to speed up in the last month. This lovely rose is in our front garden where it gets plenty of sun. This year, my wife did the pruning.

More Swallows

Yesterday, we spotted a couple more swallows. As April progresses there will be more and more until they leave later in the year. The next thing will be the swifts. Screaming swifts to me represent the height of summer and bring joy to the heart.

Cuckoos often lay their eggs in reed warbler nests, so a trip up the nearby lode (waterway) is likely to result in a sighting of a cuckoo in May/June.

North Korea

So, the North Korean missile test failed. I am not that surprised as I feel the USA had something to do with this. Of course, I may be totally wrong, and indeed I hope I am.

The Trump administration would be unable "neutralise" the North Korean nuclear threat without unpredictable consequences, but the USA Secret Service was probably in a position to do something to put a "spanner in the works".  Of course, the USA never uses such underhand techniques.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39612095 .

Easter Egg Hunting

Easter egg hunting. 2 of our grandchildren a few days ago in our garden.