A friend asked me to make some suggestions for the small, sloping patch of land around her new house on an urban lot. Which started me thinking of how a garden is used and viewed. I am very aware that an important part of viewing my garden is through the sitting room window which forms part of one side of the square. Every morning and evening when I close the blinds, I spend time looking out and in this endless rainy weather much of my viewing is done from indoors.

What do I see? This morning I noticed that there are opening leaf shoots on the honeysuckle around the window and the Mock Orange below the window is covered with tiny cream leaf buds. At this time of year my garden is mostly brown soil, brown leafless shrubs and little patches of colour where snow crocuses, species irises and the ancilla tulips occur. When I am outside and close up, I can see lots of tiny perennial shoots poking up, some more developed posies of leaves such as poppies, monkshood, chervril, etc. Overall it does not make for a particularly interesting photo, close up there is lots to see.

A day later, another friend asked if I had some of my pottery in the garden, and could the garden be included on a garden tour. The answer to the first was a prompt yes from another friend, and a rather slower yes to the second from me. The garden is so small and the paths are narrow and have plants right along the edges where people have been known to put their clumsy feet. Moreover the garden visits are to be in August when flower gardens can be a bit tired depending on the year’s weather. I guess I will get a preliminary visit from the organisers when I can point out the pottery is incidental, and the plants are the focus!

Sunshine this morning, somehow the angle and strength of the light and the feel of the air say Spring. Catkins dangling from the trees, greening leaf buds, tiny tree flowers and the faint scent of the cottonwoods contribute to the feeling that the season has changed. The still dormant plum tree in the family’s garden casts a shadow of blue Scillas.

Photos: after the rain last night the irises glittered with raindrops – iris reticulata Cantab; iris histroides Katherine Hodgkin; muscari latifolium – I think; Snow crocus Snow Bunting still looking gorgeous but their flowers are beginning to stay open all the time, a sign of the end; species tulip turkestanica – turkestanica sold me on the bulbs, it sounded so wild and exotic and they are. With a pair of long leaves brown on the outside, a frosty green on the inside and wavy along the edges. They always slowly, slowly lift their clusters of flower buds, definately not your standard tulip.