Clockwise from top left above – snowdrops dripping with seedpods, foxgloves, miniature daffs and muscari in a pot, rosemary flowers.

Frogspawn in the pond (which is rather full of leaves and needs clearing out but we’ll wait until the tadpoles have grown) and a huge bumble bee sunning itself.

At almost the end of March, I’m joining in slightly early with Helen, The Patient Gardener for the end of month view (EOMV). These photos were taken yesterday morning when it was absolutely, perfectly spring-like. (Not so today!) There is a load of work to do in the garden – clearing, pruning, mulching – but the plants are getting on with their thing without our help. There is a definite change from the end of last month with plenty of new growth and buds everywhere, and welcome colour – yellow daffs and primroses, blue muscari, purple aubrieta, pink and blue pulmonaria, greens in many shades. It’s the time of year when there’s something new and exciting to see almost every day.

I still haven’t sown any seeds this year but I’m sure I’ll spring into action (boom, boom) soon. There’s a load of seed packets to sort through before I buy any more. After a few years of clearing the garden and rebuilding walls, there’s little major landscaping to do now but there is still structure to think about. We live in a Conservation Area and we’ve had to apply for planning permission to chop down a huge and antisocial sycamore at the bottom of the garden and to do some reshaping on a few other trees. We heard earlier in the week that permission has been granted (hurrah), so we’ll get onto that as soon as possible. Then we’re going to look at year-round interest and what we can see from the house. Because of where we are and the fact we’re on a slope the views from the windows at the front of the house are all about the sea – we can’t actually see much of the garden but what we can see needs rethinking. I have plans…

How’s your Easter so far? Don’t you just love a Friday that feels like a Saturday? And then you wake up the next day and it IS Saturday, which feels like a bonus day, then Easter Sunday with added chocolate, and THEN you have a Bank Holiday Monday. I think Easter is possibly my favourite ‘holiday’ – there isn’t the huge build-up and pressure and tradition that there is with Christmas; it’s a much more relaxed affair. Aside from making sure you’ve got the Easter egg situation covered, you can sort of skid to a halt on Thursday evening and, bam, there you are – four whole days of holiday stretching out before you. Bliss. Even the weather, which is completely pants, hasn’t dampened our spirits. David and I had intended to spend a good while in the garden today but it’s been raining almost non-stop and we’re both pretty exhausted, so we watched a film instead. In the afternoon –how decadent! (‘Hampstead’; not bad; a massively Hollywood-ised version of London but it pleasantly filled a couple of hours.)

We have no specific plans for tomorrow other than to get outside to do some gardening if it’s not too wet. My brother and his family are visiting on Sunday and my parents will come over. My niece is still of the age where Easter-egg-hunts are totally acceptable, and my nephew (who’s 12) and my three cool teenagers secretly love the fact that there will be one. Everyone loves a treasure-hunt, don’t they?

Whatever you’re up to this Easter weekend, I hope you have a lovely time.