The first blossom to come out is cherry.  We usually have it in our garden on Norway’s national day, the seventeenth of May.

Afterwards we have plum and pear blossom, and now all the apple trees are out.  This one below is a Bramley cooking apple (there’s a small beetle on it).

And this is a smallish Japanese crabapple next to the house:

They all have quite different blossom, really.  There’s more to come; lilac and philadelphus, both of which are strongly scented, should be in bloom soon.

Here are some other things that are out.  Cowslips and forget-me-nots,

more forget-me-nots and dandilions

Topsy got stuck.  She got her lead tangled in the long grass down by the compost heap.  It wasn’t a disaster.

This tree stump was once an apple tree.  We sawed through a rotten section,

which was being converted into a desirable residence by a group of ants.  It’s been going on for years.  They do the work by eating their way through the tree-stump and so far they’re about a quarter of the way around.  It’s more open to the rain than they originally intended and much lighter, but they don’t seem to mind.  There’s a nice stalagmite effect, it looks like Arizona from the air; it must be quite dramatic at night if you’re the size of an ant.