Spot the Birdie.

She back, or perhaps it's her daughter from last year's brood. Sorry the photo isn't clearer but the sun was coming from the wrong angle outside and I had to take it through the kitchen window. You may remember that collared doves built their nest behind our satellite dish last year. My husband blocked it off so they have built on the pergola. I say built, but in actual fact the nest, if you can call it that, is just a couple of wisps of dead grass on top of the stems and twigs of honeysuckle which grows over the pergola. I hope the eggs dont fall through the gaps and things are already fraught with a visit from a neighbour's beautiful and very agile huge marmalade cat who paid a visit the other day. I think a magpie may have taken the first egg as I found a broken one on the ground yesterday. She is very determined and will no doubt lay at least one more, and doesn't seem to have been put off by her unwelcome visitors.

I didn't know I had this beautiful dark hellebore - there are similar ones in the garden but none quite so deep in colour as this one. I had to almost stand on my head to take the photo - sorry about the hand and lens cap which are in the way.

It's a shame they hang their heads and we can't see them in all their glory. I wasn't going to post about them this year, but they are so lovely.

A last glimpse of the snowdrops which I have been enjoying so much. If these mild days keep turning up they'll be gone by the end of next week. I look forward to Spring and warmer days but will be sorry to see them go.

Having finished my book I now want to start using the embellishing machine again and hopefully produce at least two pieces of work that I can enter into our next exhibition in September. It seems a long way off but I need plenty of thinking time especially if I've got to learn a new technique first. I dabble at it now and then, but don't seem to get very much further with it.

I hope you have all had glorious weather this weekend, I even had my lunch outside yesterday and I enjoyed myself - and wore myself out - with my first bit of serious gardening of the year. I used to be able to weed and tidy the front garden in one go, but now it takes two sessions. Well, half of it looks better and as I did the worst bit first the rest will be easier.