Sunday walk through the garden

Poor Dotty, she's a piteous sight. I've had no end of recriminations - would it have been kinder to have had her put to sleep rather than putting her through weeks of suffering in the hope she will recover ... I don't know, but it's done now. I nearly despaired again when I picked her up last night for John to put 10 drops of pain killer into her beak, her left leg was hanging down limply - when I'd seen her standing up she must have been on just one leg - is it nerve damage and she's lost the use of her left leg permanently?
But I got hope again when all ducks and drakes had been put into bed and I took a last look out of the garage window at Dotty: she was tucking into the food I'd set down next to her! It also gives me hope that she hisses at us, ready for a fight, every time we come near her, good girl, she's feisty! I didn't bother her with the camera today, just took a shot through the window of her sun screen:

To cheer myself up I took the camera for a walk around the garden, everything is growing and blooming, and right outside the conservatory, where Dotty is, this lovely sight greeted me:

I'd opened the gate to the enclosure this morning and they were all together again including the still slightly limping Dash [Mocca limps worse than she does, yet she was the one making all the racket to be let out the last three days].

The wisteria at the garage is finally starting to bloom, last year it was fully out for John's birthday.

The red peonies are doing their blowsy thing in several places in the garden and along the drive the self-seeded Laburnum is in full swing - when I think that I planted the huge birches behind it when they were 3 tiny sticks .....

The front garden is in serious need of attention. Granted, these grasses look very pretty, but the lupins are struggling to get through:

This is the yellow/red Broom I thought I'd killed 2 years ago ...

The roses on the pergola are coming on.......

... as is the Maigold rose which is normally starting to bloom at the end of April!

Showing Gerd's presents of the plum-coloured Ligularia in the foreground and the snowball flowers of the Guelder Rose at the back.

The Cotinus, one of Carl's Mothering Sunday presents.

At the big pond it was unusual to see the resident 3 at the right hand edge - whether the visiting mallards disturbed them or whether they were trying to get through to where John had been digging the day before I don't know.

You may have noticed that I've started to remove the old tree stumps [which were disintegrating and shedding their bark into the pond] and replace them with branches - as we did years ago. The nasturtiums we planted will soon be growing through them.

At the risk of boring you with too many photos - here are some more from Thursday and yesterday, Saturday:

Big clean-out of duck shed with pressure washer.

The medlar which Ute, a kind friend in Germany, sent me some years ago and which the rabbits shortened by half in its first year, is flowering for the first time!