An awful lot of people repeatedly ask me why I live where I do miles from cultural events and shops.

The answer greeted me this morning with bright blue skies that go on for ever,qiuetness and the gentle hum of the bumble bees and the lambs playing.A flapping of wings as 2 Canadian geese treated me to aerial display of courtship before settling down by the stream to adore each other. 

It has taken an awful lot of effort to create a garden here high up at 1400ft and exposed to the horizontal rain and snow.Spring comes very late and as you can see from images done today ,in reality life is just stirring here in the herbaceous border.

My beloved paeonies and rhodendrons that I have taken everywhere I have lived during the last 35 years are settling and ready to provide  me with an armfull of blooms for the lounge.

The winter flowering hellebores have been lovely and enjoyed now by our bumble bees which I have in abundance.Clematis montana rubra growing up the side of the log store has survived winter and put on an enormous amount of growth.The Canadian red woods are another survivor again and my beloved beech trees which I have grown from seed are thriving as well.

Last week my Rosemary plant got caught by the frost but apart from that the herb bed is going well. 

Clematis