The buds on the Pear tree are swelling. For years now I have been referring to my Pear tree as a "Confrerence" one, but while I was taking this photo I happened to glance at the label which is still attached to the tree. Guess what? It's a "Concorde"! Judging by the fruit, they seem very similar.
Along the fence by the fruit trees the Raspberries are shooting up strongly. In the Autumn I took a bit of a gamble and emptied-out the compost from my tomato pots along here. You may recall that I had problems with contaminated compost last year, but in the end I concluded that it was the multi-purpose compost that was to blame, and not the stable manure stuff. I'm hoping that the thick layer of stable manure compost will be beneficial to the moisture-loving Raspberries.
The first of the Tulips is showing a little splash of colour:
There is definitely new growth on the Lavender.
The Clematis is just beginning to wake up. I didn't prune it at all in the Autumn, so hopefully I will get more flowers than last year's solitary bloom!
This is very characteristic of Spring too - the native Primrose:
Yet despite the above, THIS is the most encouraging sight of all - the emergence of the first Asparagus spear of the season!
Looking back at my records, I see that the Asparagus is about a fortnight behind its normal schedule. In 2014 I actually picked four spears on 7th April. Still they say that "what's worth having is worth waiting for", and home-grown Asparagus is definitely worth having!
