I look back at my last post, to see that 7^th May was review day for lockdown – apparently. I can’t remember if it happened or if it did, what it meant. On we drifted, for those of us not working in any regular way, every day was groundhog day. For me, the walks and the gardening continued, along with the marvellous weather. The death toll rose even further and I suppose we all searched for some meaning in it all, and wondered when the lockdown would begin to ease, while watching the news and grasping at straws.

The month began with a rainbow, and it did end with lockdown easing enough to allow us to meet six friends, outside, at a distance. Writing this, I’m wondering where we will be in a month’s time.

In between the two events above I worked in the garden, taking delight in the new flowers as they appeared – white aquilegia and lilac.

Then, by mid month, a positive deluge of pink – lupins, chives, more aquilegia, roses, osteospermum and alliums. The honeysuckle was having a very good year!

There were some creative endeavours, too: my painting-by-numbers picture – a Mother’s Day gift – progressed. And I finished the first draft of Book 3 of the new trilogy.

The foxgloves opened and surprised me by their colours – pink, of course, but not quite sure where the white ones came from.

And I tackled a box topiary job over several days – around twenty five spheres and cones, and five low hedges. Backbreaking work!

There was more than one walk by the sea – this one at Ramsgate.

On another occasion to Broadstairs and back, observing some great social distancing.

And at Dumpton Gap

And through the local fields, where the wheat and barley had put on a growth spurt in the sunshine.

My Buddleja alternifolia, also known as the fountain butterfly bush, flowered and filled the lane with its honey scent. And the paeony flowered for the first time since I moved it, but the stems were spindly and struggled to support the flower heads. I picked them for a vase and felt guilty; roses too.