After a very wet week we have a hint of sunshine peeking through the clouds today.  Oh, how very welcome that sunshine is!  It feels wonderful and the air smells fresh and clean.

I wanted to show you one of my favorite plants.  It is growing near  the side entry to my home. Each time I walk past it I enjoy its fragrance.  This is Daphne.  It can be a rather temperamental plant, but it seems to love the location I have it in.  Here in California it loves the shade.  There are lots of varieties. This one happens to be evergreen and flowers profusely at this time of year. The flowers are a lovely soft pink and they fill the senses with the color and smells of early Spring.

  

I cut just a few springs and floated them in this vase.  Their fragrance will fill the whole room!

Beside my front door a few hyacinthus bulbs and cyclamen are in bloom. Yes, it certainly feels like Spring must be just around the corner.

I have quite a few camilla bushes.  This one has already started blooming.

 

Oh, and the chickens loved the sunshine too!

Abby hasn't know what to do with all her puppy energy cooped up in the house the last few days!

I think I will sit down with a few of my favorite gardening books and dream about the changes I want to make in the garden this year...  

 

I love Williamsburg and their beautiful gardens!  This book was a gift to me from my daughter who went to William and Mary.

I confess my garden will never look like any of these, but I can dream can't I?

My chickens have free rein in our backyard.  They have a coop where they spend the night but by day they enjoy the entirety of the garden.  This has the benefit of making my chickens happy.  They lay beautiful eggs and they look very content running around our pond and on the grass.  The only drawback is that they have quite a taste for lovely flowers.----