April is Here

Early mornings are what I love the best!
All is quiet until the birds start to sing their pre-dawn chorus.
We had a few dull, rainy days, so I put a cheerful table-topper on my little round table,
made myself a mug of peppermint tea and had a peaceful read before breakfast.
I like to choose my mug according to my mood
and I have chosen spring flowers for this morning.
The yellow pansies are growing on my balcony.

Every morning, at a certain time, the sun shines in through my kitchen windows
creating pretty patterns from my heart-decorated net curtains.
I love seeing my spring flowers growing in pots on my balcony:
Yellow Allysum, red Camellia and three Begonia plants.

Here is the dark pink Begonia

After lunch, I went out for a walk in my neighbourhood.
I came across some cheerful dandelions and noticed some fallen pine needles on the path.
I'm wearing my comfortable lace-up walking shoes which are perfect for all the hills here.

The primroses have been wonderful this year, covering grassy areas in carpets of yellow.
I did like these very much growing next to some violets.

Tiny Anemone growing in shady spots among last autumn's fallen leaves.

The crocus are nearly over now. I do love their bright yellow centres.

So beautiful in yellow too.

On the first day of April, it snowed!
The pansies in my window box were a little surprised.
This purple one contrasts well with the white of the snow.

This chunky blossom is called Japanese Flowering Quince.
I saw this today on my walk.

The cherry blossom is one of the first to come into flower.
I saw the first ones in March, but these are flowering now in April.

There have been walks along the lake.
This was taken from the lakeside village of Cully.

The old wooden jetty taken from the same place.
The view was quite misty that particular day.

Last week was a challenging week with several electronic devices giving me problems:
my computer was frozen for several days until the technician could come and sort things out.
My iPad needed an upgrade and even my new landline telephone would not work.
As things sorted themselves out, I saw this little crystal angel downtown...
I thought that she would like to come and live with me - and so she did!

I made a collage of my latest crochet project.
It's going to be a couch throw called 'Granny's Secret Garden'
The pattern was created by Marion on her blog.
 You can visit her site by clicking on the name of the blanket.

I'll explain the pattern so far: on the upper left are the flowers which create the middle part,
then we come to a round of yellow and blue squares which represent Forget-me-nots.
The last round in pink and red are for the cherry blossom in flower now.
The plain coloured squares will be on the next round.

Here they are finished and attached. They make a pretty frame for the garden!
Right now, I'm making a second round of plain squares.
It takes quite a long time to do, but I work on it about an hour a day, sometimes more,
and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished blanket.

I hope that you are enjoying this month of April.
What are your favorite flowers at this time of the year?