EVERYTHING seems to have come early, writes Hazel Wedlake.

I think the ash was out before the oak, so as the rhyme goes “we may have a soak”. Can’t be sure of that. The May blossom came out in glorious profusion so “we could cast a clout! but then we had a frost!

Old sayings may no longer be valid The bees have been preparing to swarm and one colony did so in the last weeks of April. The saying goes - “A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay, A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon, a Swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly.” July swarms would not be expected to build up enough stores to survive the winter, but notice no mention of April.

I’ve abandoned the fat feeder for the birds now as jackdaws clinging on with determined flapping soon clear the lot. I saw the squirrel feeding off wild cherry berries, but also later wrapped around the bird feeder.

I hesitated to stop feeding seed straight away as bluetits, regular feeders, had just built a nest in the porch using fibre from a piece of basket liner. A bit scratchy I thought! In due course I saw them carrying insects to the nest , and even got a A photo of the first chick on the patio. They’ve all fledged now and I hope some survived with magpies and crows always around.

There hasn’t been much activity in the frog pool except for dozens of snails. When I cleared out some leaves, I found some water louse — a bit like a short centipede with lots of legs — not very glamorous name but a useful clearer - up of debris apparently.

A rather larger water inhabitant has sadly not survived our busy roads. Local Ecologist and photographer of wild life, Lucy Masters, said there is quite a healthy population of otters around Chew Valley Lake, but sadly at least two have been run over this year when most active at dawn, dusk or night. Numbers tend to increase with cleaner waterways (less pesticide pollution) dense bankside vegetation and legal protection. The Environment Agency will arrange collection of a road kill (03708 506506) but other agencies would value a report of dead or injured otters.

In the veg garden, potatoes were planted not quite on Easter Monday as tradition has it, but soon after. Peas, chard and beetroot followed with broad beans flowering by end of April. An avenue of native foxglove thrive either side of the runner bean sticks left from last year. Unintentionally, they will attract pollinators to the bean flowers – anyway that`s my excuse for leaving them! I love to hear the bumble bees, bumbling about inside the tubular flowers. I try to rotate crops to avoid disease, but this year, to avoid putting up the sticks again, I’m planting the runners in the same place and see if I get away with it!