Everything is going to be rosy in Uncle Jasper’s garden

Hello Boys and Girls, HOW are you all this week? I see some of your school gardens are coming on well. Itâ€â„¢s such a lovely time of the year to be out planting this and that. Have you seen all the lovely Daffodils everywhere? This is my sign that the good weather is finally coming and itâ€â„¢s time to be out and about once again. It will be May next week. Aunt Molly is a very good gardener. Everyone who sees Rose Cottage says so. Naturally we have lots of roses, thatâ€â„¢s why itâ€â„¢s called Rose Cottage. But Iâ€â„¢m sure you figured that out by now. Iâ€â„¢m afraid my garden was a bit of a lucky dip last year. You see I got busy planting and sowing as Aunt Molly instructed me. No bother. But when I was finished Molly said: â€Å“Jasper, where are all the packets with the pictures on them so weâ€â„¢ll know what is what?â€Â Oh dear! I forgot all about that. But Molly wasnâ€â„¢t too upset. It was her who called our garden Lucky Dip Garden. We enjoyed seeing the little shoots and buds come out and guessing what they were. Gardening can be fun. If you donâ€â„¢t have a garden at school then why not get a little one of your own going at home. Itâ€â„¢s not really that hard. LONGER EVENINGS The evenings are getting longer these days. Well I suppose the evenings are always the same length, itâ€â„¢s just you can get out more because itâ€â„¢s bright longer. I see you all getting ready for sports days and races and Community Games. Some day I hope to be watching the Olympics and see some of you competing. Iâ€â„¢d like to try the pole vault myself but Molly says Iâ€â„¢d have to use a telegraph pole. Maybe Iâ€â„¢ll settle for the sprint. She says I sure can cover the 100 metres from the garden to the kitchen table in record time when Iâ€â„¢m called in for tea. Itâ€â„¢s great to be good at something. NESTING TIME The birds are busy at this time of the year building new nests. Youâ€â„¢ll see them gathering up lots of twigs and whatnot around the place and flying off. The nest has to be ready in time for the Mammy bird to lay her eggs. Then the chicks have to be ready to fly and fend for themselves by the time the cold weather comes around again. This is why itâ€â„¢s important not to disturb the nests. Birds are easily frightened. Well, most birds. Robins donâ€â„¢t seem to be afraid of anything â€â€ not even Tiddles. Robins are very territorial. This means they guard their patch and like to stick around it year after year. I call my little one Cheeky because he or she, I donâ€â„¢t know which, comes right up to me when Iâ€â„¢m having my tea and biscuit and nibbles the crumbs as cheeky as you please. Speaking of crumbs, donâ€â„¢t forget that it can still be a bit cold for the birds and they might be finding a little hard to find food. So leave out a little something for them if you can. Let me know if you have any nice birds in your garden this year. Bye for now, Uncle Jasper ART WORK Thanks to all you young artists for the beautiful colourings you send in. We can only get a tiny amount in he paper but Molly and I just love to see them coming in. Rose Cottage is just plastered with them so keep them coming because I wonâ€â„¢t have to paint the walls this summer if you keep it up. A special thank you to Sorcha who send me in a wonderful picture. I have it above my desk and I just love it.