It's been glorious this weekend so far, if a little chilly in the wind, so it's easy to give into the temptation to do a bit of gardening. Mind you, 'gardening' might not be the right description; it was more like 'hacking and chopping'. We have managed to cut down 8 trees so far and have dug out 3 of the roots. It's been a bit of a challenge with an achey back and tennis elbow between us, but we are taking our time with it. In fact today I spent more time photographing and watching the birds and sitting in the sun than actually digging. One of the tasks I had set my self was to plant some herbs. I've really missed having fresh herbs so the obvious thing to do is to plant some pots that can be moved and transplanted at a later date.  When I say 'obvious' it was only after much deliberation about where to plant the herbs that I came to the 'obvious' conclusion. I'll pick the herbs and freeze them so at least there will always be some to use in the kitchen. The herb roll call so far is mint, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary.

  Just to give you a hint of the monumental task ahead of us to convert the barns and clear the garden, I've added a couple of very pretty photos of our wall garden, which is actually, slightly disturbingly, some of the barn walls. For more information about our barn project, click on the link above to view the barn conversion blog.

There is an abundance of bird life at the barns and it was completely absorbing watching them. It will be the last summer of nesting in the barns so I intend to make a full photographic journal in the next few months until the building starts. The swallows have returned to their nests and they are absolutely fascinating and so quick. I tried on several occasions to catch them on camera on only managed one blurred effort. The sparrows were quite amusingly spring like - see the photo to see what I mean!!!! 

I managed a little bit of crochet before I packed up with the gardening. I'm still working on my sheep concoction with a bit of grassy loop stitch meadow.