At times last week, you could be forgiven if you thought summer had arrived early.
At the beginning of the week we had summery temperatures. The media as usual, were dramatising this with reports of the hottest ever April temperature, but, according to the weather station in our garden, our hottest April day, it recorded, was back in 2018. I can also remember years ago, in the 1970s or 1980s, that April was so summery that we went out and bought sun loungers in the Easter holiday. Of course, the summery weather didn’t last and by the weekend the temperature plummeted. It came as a shock to us, and the plants, after being spoiled early in the week.
We carried on planting up the allotment. More cauliflowers were added to the brassica bed. 
We sowed our first two rows of peas but I forgot to take a photo. We covered the bed with enviromesh as last year, something nibbled away the emergent shoots. Another plot-holder saw wood pigeons pulling off flowers from his pea plants. It’s getting to the stage where everything needs protecting from something.
I planted gladioli corms saved from last year, some are quite small, so may not flower – we will see.
We had a delivery of wood chippings on Friday so Martyn tidied up under some of the fruit trees….
On our regular visit to Temple Newsam we decided to deviate from our usual walk and head off into the woods to look for bluebells. We have seen bluebells at Nostell and other places but, although the displays are lovely, they can’t compete with the display at Temple Newsam. Here, the entire woodland floor is a sea of blue which stretches as far as the eye can see in all directions. I’m sure few people know they are there as we stumbled across them on our wanderings only a couple of years ago.
The bluebells at Temple Newsam are native English bluebells. These are often pushed aside by the sturdier Spanish variety that are grown in gardens.
English bluebell flowers – below on the left – are slender and grow along one side of the arching flower stem.
Spanish bluebell flowers are chubbier and grow all around sturdier, upright stems. The colour is also a paler blue than our native species. Although blue is the usual colour of the flowers of some native bluebells are white and Spanish bells can be white or pink.
Before flowering, the two species can be identified by their leaves. The native bluebell has strappy leaves, whereas those of the Spanish variety are wider, rather like hyacinth leaves.
Another difference is only apparent when walking through a bluebell wood, where the air is filled with perfume. Spanish bluebells do not have a scent. I’m not sure what Ruby’s keen nose makes of the scent, but she seems happy enough.
If both types of bluebells grow close to one another, they will hybridize. This dilutes the unique qualities of the native species and so becomes a problem if the Spanish plants invade native woodlands.
After exploring the woodland, we took our usual walk around Temple Newsam, where the azaleas are coming into flower.
As we treated ourselves to a cold drink, I noticed a tiny spider had hitched a ride on my bag. It was only three or four millimetres in size, but its colouring made it stand out as it crawled about on the black bag. A swift browse on the internet identified it as a cucumber spider.
At Nostell, most of the trees are at their best. The rich bronzed leaves provide a contrast to the vibrant greens.
The horse chestnuts are sporting their candle-like flowers.
On cue, the hawthorn is loaded with May blossom. It looks pretty, but the scent is rather pungent.
That’s all for this week, so as always stay safe and stay well
I’ve gone from having the fan on one minute to the heating on the next. We are expecting a frost to night. We’ve also been told to expect at least a fortnight of dry weather without any rain. Your photos of the Bluebell Woods are so pretty. We do have native bluebells in patches here, but nothing like what you’ve got. unfortunately, thanks to a well meaning neighbour, all the gardens around here are full of the Spanish sort not the native. It seems once they get a hold, you can’t get rid of them.