May started with the glorious cherry blossom

The trees were slowly coming into leaf

The tulips were out

And the tulips were out…along with daffodils…

…and more daffodils (up the bank between the house and the wooden shed – with the camellia sneaking in at the left)…

…and more daffodils…

…and more daffodils…

…and even more daffodils!

I’d purchased a whole array of perennial flower plugs which were all merrily growing on in pots

While the tree nursery was dug and planted up with a host of elder saplings from Oxfordshire and, along the back, some fuschia plants we rescued from a pile that had been dumped up in the north-east corner of the land

The greenhouse, now with the glass cleaned, had its first seedlings planted out but, sadly, most succumbed to the slugs

Looking north towards the house from the adjacent footpath, the glorious gorse in full bloom (with our lovely cherry tree in the background)

Oh look! More tulips and daffodils! I just loved the vivid colours of the tulips

Jason likes the sun and the warm tarmac. Apparently, he doesn’t particularly like his photo being taken…

Starting from looking up the bank from the north side of the house this is number 1…

Coming round to the right, this is our lovely big horse chestnut / beech patch…

Another glorious beech, this one on the east side of our track

And finally on this little 180 degree view, the cherry tree again (with our very well used washing line underneath)

Lots of rhododendrons planted – most in red…

…with some delicate yellow ones if you look carefully

Having painted the kitchen (in paint left over from Chris’ old house which, mysteriously, was almost a perfect colour match for the original colour!) Chris cleaned the chimney and got the range going…with steam pouring out of the unconnected pipe coming out of the back boiler for added excitement

Trees! Sky! Sunshine!

No photos of the housewarming itself, but this is Chris finishing off the last of a rather epic trifle that was brought along – none for little vegan me, but I’m told it was yum!

Where once was lots of brash and brambles, our first wood stack (and to the right, one of the many heaps of rotten wood from the spruce that had been felled and partially processed a few years back. Shame it’s not usable but good for habitat piles)

We started stripping off the lath and plaster in the dormer room to the north of the house and discovered…

…lots of honeycomb!

There had, apparently, been a swarm living up here at some point, but we extracted the comb to avoid a return