Progress....

...is slow but steady on the portrait of this horse.  Spare time has been minimal. but luckily there is no immediate deadline, so I can afford to lose a couple of days work.  I would like to be getting on with it though, as it's always a pleasure to paint horses.

This time last week we were wearing winter clothes and even having hailstorms.  What a difference a week makes!  With the appearance of the sun at last, things have started to grow and flower and the garden is looking like it should. 

I didn't plant these aquilegia, they just decided to seed themselves, but they are forgiven as they are so very pretty, like little bonnets nodding in the breeze.  I may have to be a bit severe with them when the flowers are gone though in order to make room for everything else that wants to grown in that flower bed.

Hands up those of you who remember the great Tomato Race debacle of last year?  It was another bad year for tomatoes and I lost miserably to Midge at Soggibottom - my crop was so poor I ended up gathering all the green tomatoes at the end of the season to make chutney as that's just about all they were good for.  It doesn't look like this year will be much better - I have already lost a number of plants to either the torrential rain or the slugs and snails that came with it.  However, these little cherry tomato plants already have flowers on them, so perhaps all is not lost.  I do have three larger plants that survived the flooding - fingers crossed this warm spell will give them the boost they need.