First signs of Spring

In the Southern Hemisphere, winter is finally over and it's already pretty warm although we are yet to have any rain. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and it will be very welcome as it's very dusty and windy and my allergies are driving me crazy. I got rid of the jasmine because I am very allergic to that and next on my hit list is the pine tree: they are an invasive alien species and the amount of pollen it spews out at this time of year makes being at home unpleasant.

On to the spring flowers, this is Viburnum, I don't know which cultivar it is. I rescued it as an extremely spindly handful of branches of unrecognisable shrub from under the mess of jasmine and spindly roses and planted it in a pot last autumn. This year, it's still a little spindly but is recovering enough to be pruned a little. Now it has flowered and can be identified. There's one of those tiny little flies that likes flowers again...

This may be a Plum tree that came up after someone threw a plum pip into the back yard, I don't know, it makes a few flowers but doesn't bear fruit. I like the purple leaves anyway. I need to prune it again although its too late this year.

Stoechas lavender is a great favourite with the bees, this is an unusual variety with very dark purple little florets