We had a lovely day today

 Last years Flower Spikes of my Echiums, saved to use as supports for Morning Glories or Canary Creepers

It has been too cold to Garden recently on the days when we have had the inclination and time.  I say WE because that is how it works here in our Kiaora Garden. We garden together, Colin and I. He is the arty one , arranging , moving around, buying BOLD , putting audacious plants alongside each other.  I am the ruthless getter ridder, the scientific gardener, messy , careless and haphazard. We make a perfect team. Just like the Easter Triduum.The days all go together and give the significance to the others.

Today is an in between sort of day. It was warm enough to start the onslaught on the garden. We have great rows (rhymes with cows) in the garden. Today it was Colin putting too many wrong hard sticks and lumps of cardboard in the Compost bin.  When I emptied it , to fill my Sweet Pea trench it was like opening a giant 100 L bottle of Brown Slime complete with those huge yellow slugs. It will be all right , will soon rot down properly, and the Sweet Peas will never know .Tomorrow, or Monday it will be me bringing clods of soil all over the newly swept paths or digging up Colin's Lily Bulbs. We had a great time. It was a day of knowing that something is about to happen.No family tomorrow, they are coming on Monday.

  It will be the first Easter Sunday without a family Occasion. Gardening doesn't usually happen on Holy Saturday.  I am cleaning the house , scraping Jersey Royals, making a Simnel Cake, a trifle, buying the Spring Lamb, doing the Mirrors, cleaning the best cutlery and so on. SO today was a real in between day. By Yesterday all the Easter grocery Shopping had been done.  I don't shop on Good Friday.Today just gardening.

We have made what they call a GOOD START.

Mostly we have had to remove the many dead shrubs. All my overwintering  Chard is dead. The first year I have had no Purple to sprout. I don't know how the October sown salad greens have all survived.  Maybe because they are some Japanese variety that last appeared in a painting of  a snow capped Mt Fuji by Hokusai.

Tomorrow we will be going on the Cliff Top above Filey Brigg at 7am for the 'Sunrise' service to greet Easter Morn.

I know that My Echiums are truly DEAD. The overwintering ones though covered with fleece did not survive. They were promising to be as magnificent as the ones in the picture. I have had to put them in the Brown Bin. 

I have told my Facebook Group 'I got an Echium Through the Winter 'that I didnt.

But this in between day is just that. I have remembered that I will have hundreds of seedings soon appearing all over the garden, easily recognised with the spots on the second leaves. I will get them through the winter for their 2+ years growth before astounding passers by again.