Here at last - welcome Spring

Happy Spring! I think it's now safe to say that Spring has arrived in our corner of Bulgaria. There hasn't been any snow for a few weeks now and green is spreading across the hillside, and most welcome it is too. The crocus bulbs that I popped in last autumn have been treating us to a show of white, purple and glowing orange (thank you Mum!) and I've been without a coat and/or jumper working in the garden (so much to do...).

I've spotted my first three storks of this year flying over the house last weekend, so I've hung up my martenitsa on a young apple tree near the house. Fingers crossed that we'll have another stork pair make use of the nest that was built here last year (though Mr. Stork flew off with another female and Mrs. Stork eventually gave up sitting and flew off too); I hope we see little 'uns this time.

Speaking of little 'uns, I may become a 'grandma' in April and May! Our goats Yo (grey and white) and Yammy (white with horns) are due to kid either side of Easter; Yo is definitely with kid but Yammy's keeping us guessing (one day big belly, next day small).

We're overflowing with eggs at the moment, both chicken and turkey eggs. Today's count was ten, and judging by the size of a couple of them we may have double yolkers. I'm happily trawling through the recipe collection for ways to use these, yum yum.

Over winter I bought a selection of seeds to continue adding plants that I love to the garden, amongst which were two packets of sweet violet (Viola odorata): one wild, one a cultivar. It remains to be seen how much luck I'll have with these, but I was delighted to discover a generous patch of violets - and how gorgeous they smell too - down by the washing line yesterday.

Now that I've awoken from hibernation (!) I'll be back more often to share the goings on here.
P.S. this post is dedicated to Ro, thanks for the prod!