If you had been able to come and stay in Kirkstead Old Mill Cottage during this cold, but beautiful springtime, these daffodils would have greeted you. And if you'd walked on past my home and up towards the bank of the river Witham, this is the view of the land drain - behind the Pumping Station.
Carry on over the disused railway bridge and walk down the path of bark chippings, through the mini orchard, into the Wild Garden and relax for a while under the first Oak tree.
When you were rested, you could have looked to your left and seen the catkin below. Les Binns, a friend that I met through meetings of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, captured the image, which I am able to recognise as belonging to a weeping ------ tree. If you would like to fill in the dashes, I invite you to enter my first competition of 2021. Leave me a text message, or send your entry by email to: [email protected]. I will close the competition when I have received 10 entries or on Friday 30th April. The small prizes are examples of local produce, or a bird feeder from C J Wildlife, and if you are a winner, I will send you an updated list to select from.
Over the last 20+ years, I've lived in Kirkstead and since then we've added to the bulbs in our Wild Garden (which we created out of a bramble-covered, dis-used railway embankment) every year. If you want to create drifts of daffodils like this, I can do no more than direct you to www.JParkers.co.uk.