If I could describe the perfect weather, the weather we are having now would be it.

Every day, for weeks on end, we have seen blue sunny skies, pleasantly warm temperatures during the day, and cooling down overnight for a cosy night’s sleep, snuggled up under the blankets.

It hasn’t rained at all, which is an advantage in one way as there is no humidity, but a disadvantage as the garden is crying out for a nice long refreshing drink of water.

Every afternoon I give some of the garden a watering, keeping it to just the plants that I know will suffer from the lack of water, such as my potted poppies and orchids, and the vegetable garden.

This week I have devoted each day to giving my garden a “spring clean”. It’s more than just pulling out the weeds and pruning a few plants, and my mission is to have all the tidying up completed before the heat arrives.

Yesterday’s chore of pressure cleaning the pavers at the back of my house had to be aborted, due to our four-month old pressure cleaner blowing a gasket! It has gone to the pressure cleaner hospital for a few days, and will be home again next week, so I can finish the job then.

Meanwhile, plenty of plants and trees have been pruned, old tatty plants have been removed, today I have added some new topsoil in the gardens where necessary, and before breakfast this morning I had a huge truck load of mulch delivered!

We all know how I will be spending the day tomorrow!!

I haven’t been alone in the garden either. Little Miss Tibbs has been right by my side, “helping”. No day in the garden is complete, without having your hands grabbed as you pull out weeds, legs jumped on as you move along the garden bed, and of course, everyone knows that a freshly weeded patch of dirt simply has to be rolled in!

She really is such wonderful company. If I don’t pay her enough attention I hear her little meow, and next thing she is rubbing up against my legs (or arms, or whatever body part is handy at the time!)

My sore muscles and aching “gardener’s back” are really of no consequence, when I think of the pure and absolute pleasure I feel when I’m out in the garden. If there is a place in the world that I could call my “Sacred Place”, that would have to be my garden.

New buds are forming, showing signs of the promise of beauty yet to come and my mango tree is positively covered in little blossoms! If we don’t have too many windy days (the wind can blow the tiny mango seeds away, leaving us with a bare tree) then we are in for a bumper crop of mangoes this year!

This afternoon, when I went right down the back garden to take photos of the mango tree, I spotted a Bush Turkey, just outside the back gate. He seemed tame enough, so I went closer to take his photo. Unfortunately he didn’t smile for the camera though, as he was more interested in finding his lunch.

Some regular visitors to the garden, the magpies, who have dropped in for a chat and a meal for a few years now, were here for their usual afternoon scrounge around, and when they left the garden they headed for the very top of one of the tallest trees around, a Norfolk Pine.

I zoomed in on them to get a photo of the pair, looking quite ruffled, as the two of them tried to keep their balance and the tree swayed in the breeze!

Everyone should have a “Sacred Place”, somewhere that you can go to, where all the cares of the world are guaranteed to be washed away in an instant.

Do you have a “Sacred Place”, or even a person who pacifies your mind and soothes your soul?