Bilberry Bumblebee

What a funny month April has been! Easter fell very early this year, resulting in very cold weather and for some of us (including me and JP) more snow! We had some 8 inches of snow lying from Easter Monday until Wednesday. I felt sorry for our poor French wwoofers, but that said, they had been volunteering all winter in the UK, so they were used to the colder weather. Of course we couldn’t do much in the garden, so they cleared out the greenhouse, which was brilliant! Another job we were glad of an extra pair of hands was moving a small greenhouse across the road to our neighbours. Because we are a bit more exposed, we had to place the greenhouse next to the house, which meant it didn’t get any sun. So, our neighbours had a much better spot for it, and that’s where it ended up. Instead of the greenhouse, we built an outdoor run for the chickens, which actually turned out really nice! I planted it with ‘chicken friendly plants’, or should I say: ‘plants chickens really like to eat’?!

Unfortunately the hens are not really enjoying their new run, because the plants have to establish themselves first, before they have the chance to destroy them. They are, however, enjoying making a racket outside our garden! We live pretty remotely and away from any main roads, so we just let the hens run around the path, and the road, and the fields, and the neighbour’s garden and....

Because of the long, long winter our garden is a little behind with everything. Our first frog spawn appeared the second week of April; our daffodils are only just beginning to flower in the last week of April; our Helleborus plants are still fully flowering and I haven’t planted much in the vegetable beds either. I had to pre-sprout the onion sets, because we couldn’t plant them sooner. Anyway, normally everything catches up as soon as the weather warms up a bit.

I had some fantastic news the other week - the Bumblebee Conservation Trust confirmed that we are the proud ‘owners’ of the rare Bilberry Bumblebee! Planting all those wildlife friendly plants and shrubs has paid off, it seems, which I’m very happy about.

Mid April I have been doing some TV-extra work again. Keep an eye out for a birthday party scene in River City to be broadcast in summer. I was selected to be one of the main characters’ ‘friends’. I don’t have any lines (extras don’t say anything!), but I can be seen mingling with the main actors and another 3 extras. The other extras, by the way, were very experienced; all of them had been doing it for 10-15 years! I just started in July last year!

Sorry to those who follow River City, but I cannot say anything more about the scene, except that it was filmed in one of the studio ‘living rooms’. I had another extra job this month, too - but it wasn’t that exciting at all - the group of 6 I was in weren’t even used. We just hung around until we were released 5 hours later.