Yes, I dare to mention it this morning because the sun is shining, the weather forecast is 'improving' and I feel better than I have done for some days.
My bathroom window is one of those 'tilting' ones that opens from the bottom. Each day - unless it is very windy - my Carer opens it a tiny bit. I keep it open as long as I can (if the wind gets up it can blow the window wide open), especially at the moment. Why? Because Mr Blackbird has to advertise to the world (and, unfortunately to every nasty thieving magpie in the area) that ere long baby blackbirds are due! One of the side effects of colon cancer is frequent loo visits and it is so wonderful to be greeted every single time I visit the smallest room, with the wonderful song of the blackbird (not quite as melodious as his cousin the song thrush but that is a sound I haven't heard since I left the farm).
'When does he eat?' I ask? I think he gets most of his food intake from my front lawn where he hops up and down very early in the morning poking his beak deep into the ground every now and then. But, believe me, he gives me such a lot of pleasure.
As to my lawn!!! A week ago I sent my gardener a text saying that within a day of his last mowing there were 49 dandelions in full bloom. Today I started counting them and got to eighty then lost my place. (they don't grow in straight lines so when the numbers rise counting is difficult.)
They are such beautiful flowers, The piece of ground opposite has a thick border of them in full bloom, They might just as well have a sign saying "You'll never beat us so why not join us". In a couple of weeks those beautiful yellow flowers, which are so beneficial to so many insects, will be dandelion 'clocks', each one carrying hundreds of seeds. And every time there is a Summer south wind blowing gently (well we can hope can't we?) those seeds will find a new home in my front lawn. Don't know whether to smile or weep.
My side lawn, not to be outdone, displays three large clumps of mushrooms. Not dainty fairy ring types but great hulking fully grown things - not edible, but distinctly noticeable.
It has not been lawn mowing weather. Monday is my gardener's mowing day. I expect he began doing just that yesterday but soon after lunch we had a couple of hours of heavy rain.
I shall now put on a coat and have a walk round my bungalow, looking what is out (from the patio it looks as though Asperula Odorata has colonised a large area at the top.) The white flowers are just coming out and as they emerge I can just about see them. They are so pretty but need watching otherwise they take over. The Mare's Tail - (my enemy although it is quite attractive)- will be well up now and every clump needs cutting off at ground level to discourage it. (You will never get rid of it if you have it, but never be tempted to pull it up - always cut it off. There is nothing the roots of Mare's Tail like better than a chance to put out another hundred or two shoots from a roughly pulled up clump.
So all you gardeners out there - good luck with your garden this year and remember a plant is only a weed if it is growing where you don't wish to see it. I have a single dandelion out in the middle of a clump of Grape Hyacinths of the deepest blue. It can stay (for now at any rate) - it looks divine.