It’s been fantastic weather for the first 3 weeks of April (following the weather pattern seen over the last few years, and a change from the traditional ‘April showers’). The daffodils peaked, and faded, being superseded by a spectacular display of primroses which blanketed the banks of the lanes here abouts.

Primrose by drive

The fine weather was just what was needed to work on the last area of garden that needed preparing for grassing. It wasn’t a big area, and had already been broken up with a rotorvator at the end of last year, but it was still tough to re-break the soil by hand and rake it flat. As my soft hands blistered and my back ached I was thinking of the farmers of olden days who created the fields around the barn, picking the rocks and stones from the fields, building the hedges, and digging the network of ancient underground stone built drains that are unseen but still doing their work today. I wondered more than once if every day spent doing the job they once did would bring my life expectancy closer to their small share of years.

Preparing for grass

Stone picking is something we’ve done a lot of while making an old farm yard, then building site, into a garden – preparing this area added another 3-4 tonnes of rock and stone to what has already been pulled from the ground.

Stone picked from garden – latest 3-4 tonnes

And the ducks? It got a little duck crazy early in April, with the female starting to sit on her nest, and the males wandering the garden looking for her. I don’t think ducks normally sit on roof tops, but this one was, looking out for his lost lady friend.

Duck on the roof

Meanwhile she was sneaking off the nest in the evening, sniffing out slugs and snails in the garden, and coming to the kitchen door looking for her favourite food – bread. [Bread is not really good for ducks, even though a staggering 6 million loaves of bread are fed to ducks in the UK each year, they should be fed something more healthy like peas, grapes or lettuce].

Duck looking in the kitchen door

This is where she is nesting, in a cosy ‘cave’ under big tree roots in the bank at the back of the garden – seen here from the kitchen door. Mallard ducks incubate eggs for 28 days, so the ducklings should be hatching around 5th May.

Duck nest – from kitchen door

With the fine weather came a few days of sea mist – forming when moist air blowing in off the sea is pushed up over the land on warm days. Sea mist fascinates me – even though I understand the process it’s amazing to be on a beach under blue skies and watch a bank of rolling mist forming along the cliffs behind, as the sea breeze pushes up over the land. I spend a few days in April in Tom’s boatyard in Polruan when there was sea mist swirling in over the village, hiding Fowey town on the other side of the river.

Fowey town through sea mist – from Polruan

One sunny day I found this small slow worm outside the gates of the boatyard – a really bad place for him, no grass anywhere near and seagulls circling overhead. He didn’t want to be helped, but after a bit of a chase I got him and on the way home took him up the hill to a safer spot in the grassy churchyard of St Saviours church. Maybe the slow worm knew more than me – when I came back down the hill past the church the next morning there was a guy with a mower cutting the churchyard grass. Oh no !

Slow worm (legless lizard)

At the end of the 3rd week of April the fantastic spell of fine weather finally broke, bringing rain and thick fog. The weather looks set to be more changeable through May, plenty of rain and rain showers for the plants (which will shoot up), and some great sunny days when they come.