A quick trip round the front garden this afternoon.

I've been doing some tidying up out there, trimming the hedge and making exciting discoveries. The Aquilega have nearly finished here as well as in the back garden so I was cutting them back and I discovered that the Fuschias I thought had died off in the winter are shooting out again from the bottom. I started clearing some of the rubbish away yesterday but scared a baby blackbird which had just fledged and was hiding under the hedge, so I left him in peace and carried on this afternoon after he had gone. There were some newly fledged bluetits in the Ash tree this afternoon as well and the goldfinch is still visiting the sunflower hearts. The grass was cut a couple of days ago before it rained, I like to do it when rain is forecast if possible so it doesn't go brown. The main bit of pocket handkerchief sized lawn and the paths round the rose bed is cut with my ancient hover mower which I bought 20 years ago for £19 and is still going strong, the only difficulty is getting new blades for it as they don't make it any more. It's been a good little mower and doesn't complain even if the grass is wet. I tidy round the edges on my hands and knees with a pair of scissors so I don't decapitate any of my frogs or other creatures hiding in the grass!

I have also had some of my potatoes I grew in pots. Much nicer straight from the garden than bought in the shop. I did two sorts in the pots a couple of weeks earlier than I planted in the ground. I did some Charlotte that had been bought to eat but had started sprouting in the vegetable basket and some Jazzy from seed potatoes. So far I have dug one plant of each and Jazzy has produced more potatoes, but was in a bigger pot than Charlotte. It will be interesting to see if the result is the same for all the pots.

While cutting the hedge I came across a little beetle munching away on the dog rose leaves so after taking his picture I cut around him. If I'd been using the electric hedge cutter favoured by the neighbours instead of my faithful old garden shears I would have missed him.

I had my first few strawberries from the new bit of garden lunchtime. I have found that I have to pick them as soon as they begin to change colour and ripen them off on the kitchen windowsill or they get eaten by woodlice, I caught one in the act a couple of days ago.