It’s been lovely over here since Monday and things are starting to wake up, especially these Marvel of Peru (AKA the Four O’clock Plant) seeds that have germinated that we got from Real Seeds. It’s a bit of a mad plant, as it says on wikipedia here, “The flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (namely between 4 and 8 o’clock), giving rise to one of its common names. The flowers then produce a strong, sweet fragrance throughout the night, then close in the morning. New flowers open the following day.” We will keep you posted on developments.
As for the toads in the pond, it’s looking rather hectic there!
We’ve just listened to this weeks Great Lives on Radio 4 with John Cooper Clarke about one Johnny Green (once hippy, driver, writer and the road manager of The Clash and Tour De France fan). It’s a great 27 minutes with contributions from his kids, Topper Headon and Chris Salewicz. It’s nice to hear old JCC’s distinctive voice again. To listen to the show click 
Cheers to our friend in the Lake District Rich R for sending us a picture of his first cosmos flower, brilliant stuff. It’s fantastic about all this passing on seeds that gardeners do and a big cheers to Debby H for starting all this cosmos mania off in the first place. Ours are still a work in progress, but we may know more in a few days time.
A few days ago we heard from our good friend from Japan, Stevyn from the great 
Weeds up to me knees 