Here in Wiltshire we are still awaiting the mini-heatwave that is apparently due any hour now...this morning is still chilly and, for the first time in a while, quite breezy, which keeps it feeling cooler still. 

I have a day to myself, and a list of jobs as long as both my arms. I also have a stinking headache. This may be the product of a late evening glass of red wine, my last before commencing Lent. Or could it be Bay poisoning - there were a lot in the stew I cooked last night? I think Bay poisoning is unlikely, and will keep reminding myself of the way my head feels if I get any yearning for a crafty pint during the next forty days and nights.

The accumulation of pot-grown shrubs which has carried on over the past weeks is getting ridiculous, so one major job today is to get them planted while the soil is warmer, and there is rain forecast. That will finish off the redesigned front garden for now, until (home-grown) perennials start to go in a bit later - most are in the greenhouse and will need a bit of exposure to the outside world before I put them in. I have to say that the laying-out of plants in pots, and fiddling around with the arrangement, is a great pleasure - even though first instincts generally prove right, however many subsequent permutations one goes through.

The robin in our ivy persists with its (I think his) nesting activity, which started before Christmas. Unless part of the nest has collapsed during the past two months and needed rebuilding, it ought to be huge by now, as he's been making very regular flights to deliver nest material. Sadly it can't be seen properly from inside or outside the house - sadly for us, that is, not for the robin who's clearly found a nice secluded spot tucked in behind the ivy. What the robin does not know is that the ivy is due to be removed, and is already pretty dead since I cut through its main trunk in the autumn. With luck the robins will nest early and then I can get on with taking it down completely - obviously, while they're there it can't be touched. 

More garden magazines have arrived this week - all full of what to do in March already...we risk wishing the year away so soon if we're not careful.

Right, I need to get on and can't stay at the laptop all morning: jobs to do!