That ol' familiar feeling ...

I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation from the winter! 

I've spent the last 3 weeks or so working on my garden and have been reacquainting myself with the beings that I share this space with.  It's 'our' home.

So far I've spotted one frog and one toad while extending the water feature.  Both of them seemed to be in good health and didn't seem to bothered at having to shift themselves from the area I was working on.  I don't know if any of the other frogs and toads used the two hibernation shelters and I don't want to risk disturbing them to find out.

I was working in the garden again today and moved some of the plants to the spots where they will stay and sowed a few handfulls of sunflower seeds in the square under the bird feeders.  The robins, coal tits and blue tits seem to have gotten used to my presence as I beavered away at this and that.  Everytime some soil was left uncovered the robins would dart in looking for worms etc.  The blue tits have bred again and I've already seen young ones being fed on the branches of the trees at the rear by their parents.  I also had six juvenille green finches in the other day.  Is it me or are they earlier than usual?  The bullfinches, great tits, sparrows and blackbirds are coming in regularly for food too but I haven't seen the goldfinches for a few days now...and I haven't seen the long tailed tits over the last two weeks.  The last time I saw the sparrowhawk was a month ago as it sat plucking the feathers off a wood pidgeon at the end of the garden.  I haven't seen the thrushes either or the wrens that pop up infrequently.

Many of the plants that I thought had died seem to be pushing new growth through the covering of decaying leaves that I covered them with last autumn.  Only five plants didn't survive.  The wysteria is getting ready to burst into leaf and the virginia creepers are displaying beautifully coloured foliage.  One of the more attractive additions to the collection of bushes is a plant called 'Pacific Nights' ... shiny, dark and aesthetically pleasing.  The climbing rose at the front of the house is thriving!  It was flowering well into winter.

The many showers of rain allowed me to assess the water movement around the garden - from rooftop to water butts and onto the water feature, through to the other end. The whole water feature cascades nicely to the end of the garden, allowing just enough shallow pools to keep the birds interested.  A magpie was skipping around the shallows and over the pebbles today searching for insects.

I wish newts would come in and claim some space!  I used to love watching them swim in my garden in Cornwall.  They look like tiny crocodiles when they swim!

As I moved the plants into place today I felt that energy again  - it's something that I haven't felt since being on the land in Cornwall.  It's as though all of the animals, plants ... and myself have all contributed something here to make the energy of the Universe more tangible in this small space space.  I felt connected and I'm grateful for it.

As the daylight faded, the various solar lights came on and made the space look and feel like an elven paradise.

Tonight I'm content.

Wolf