Hellebore season

Our garden is most definitely a spring garden, and there are most definitely signs that spring is on the way!  Some of my favourite spring flowers are the Hellebores which start appearing from late January; I’ve got a few different varieties – in these photos are (from the top) Helleborus argutifolius, Helleborus foetidus, Helleborus niger and Helleborus orientalis.  Every year, the Helleborus orientalis (Oriental hellebore) flowers are slightly different shades of pink – they started off as deep purple when I planted them, but as the bees start to wake up and visit the flowers, they have gradually faded as the bees travel from the white Helleborus niger (Christmas rose) flowers to the darker pink flowers – the same has happened with the foxgloves in the garden and now I have all kinds of colours.  We’re a while off seeing the foxgloves yet, but I wonder what we’ll get this year?!

Hello to you, I hope you’ve had a lovely week!  Mine has been a bit all over the place – I seem to have spent a lot of it driving around in the rain to various appointments, although I did have a fab day out on Wednesday over in Skipton with my friend Lucy.  Unless there’s a reason why the road over the top of the moors is closed, I will always go that way so that I can see the hills and the sheep – the sheep are out on the moors at the moment and there are signs up to tell you to be careful on the road.  This is my favourite …

I took this photo from the side of the road as there were “pedestrians” walking along it … they’re not at all bothered, even if you hang out of the side of the car to take photos!

It wasn’t snowing last Wednesday when I went to see Lucy – I took these earlier in the year when I went over and it had been snowing, but the sheep are still around.  It makes me really happy to drive over the moors in any weather, but especially when it’s snowing!

I also stopped to buy some eggs.  I’ve been coming along this road to see Lucy for years now, and every time I drove past this honesty box at the end of a farm drive, I thought that I should buy some eggs, and I’ve started doing that now.  I’m all for supporting small businesses, and that includes Henry’s Happy Hens!

Look at that view beyond!  I think it’s one of my favourites on the drive over …

I can tell you that Henry’s eggs are fabulous – big eggs with bright yellow yolks; they are obviously very happy hens!  Not so small daughter has one for breakfast every day before college now which is good news for me – I am sure I am not the only parent to have had heated discussions about their children leaving the house without breakfast and then not eating much for lunch either because they’re too busy, so I am very happy for her to eat anything at all as long as she’s eating!  I’m still making the overnight bread which is ridiculously easy to make; white bread may not be the best bread for you, but this loaf has only 4 ingredients in it and I’m buying good quality flour, and most importantly, not so small daughter will eat it!  This bread makes really good toast so not so small daughter’s breakfast is a Henry egg (as we call them) on homemade toast, often with homemade bread sandwiches to take to college as well (thicker slices mean that she can take less sandwiches so she doesn’t just fill up on bread), and now I’m happy that she’s eating better than some teenagers do.

I’ve got LOADS to catch up on with the blog as I didn’t manage to get any extra posts written during the Winter Haven KAL this year, so I’m going to do my best to do that this month – I need to tell you about my visit to the new Ewe Felty Thing shop in Conwy, and I’m going to write a review of the Muud bags and accessories that I have as I absolutely love them (and I promised Muud that I would 🙂 ), plus I’ve got photos from last month and photos from this month … oh, I’ve got plenty to tell you so I’m going to do my best to cram it all in!

For now, I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and I will catch up with you soon! xx