Hoping for better things from the rhubarb patch this year. Last year I lifted and divided some crowns and planted them out but they didn't really get going. Possibly they needed time to settle in or perhaps it was the drought. Also rhubarb prefers a rich soil so the bed has been improved with wood chip, leaf mulch and alpaca dung. Anyway they seem to be doing better this year.
 There's a theory that rhubarb and onions grow well together. I've planted onion sets all around the clumps, they're very cheap to purchase. One or other may do well, hopefully a bit of both.

 The view out my bedroom window. Not my usual bedroom. I have turned a cabin I built in my father's garden into a bedroom. Thus I can visit yet maintain social distancing.

 Funnily enough I used to joke that I would probably end up sleeping in a shed- and my wishes have come true!

 There is a small pond on the allotment. The thought occurred to me that it would be nice to have some Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) which grows wild in the UK on marshy ground. Accordingly I purchased several clumps by mail order and put them in a pot sitting in the pond itself to keep the soil permanently moist.
 On a summer day a number of years ago I was walking through a secluded valley in Dorset. The valley had a soggy bottom (so to speak) and there were Yellow Flags in flower all along it:

 I take a walk round the neighbourhood once a day. Needless to say any plans I had for "rural rambles and field trips to the middle of nowhere" have been cancelled. So the local streets are my window on the world.
 I spotted this little clump of Lamium maculatum growing out of a crack in a wall. This is the form known as 'Roseum'. I grew some in a clay pot a year or two back but it didn't last. Also tried it in a couple of spots in the garden but it didn't take. And here it is self-seeded in a crack and doing fine!

 We are having glorious spring days in London. It is strange and ironic that they are made all the more glorious because the pollution, noise and movement of the city have largely ceased.
 I don't propose to dispense medical opinion on this blog but I think I am stating a fact when I say that viruses generally don't flourish in the summer months. And that the human immune system usually becomes stronger as the days get longer and warmer. We must hope this may have some benefit in the present crisis.
 The garden is full of Narcissus Thalia at the moment, which to my eye is one of the most elegant of the daffodils.

 Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) has become a widespread wildflower and for that reason is often regarded as a weed. It has deep tap roots that make it difficult to eradicate and self-seeds readily. Of Mediterranean origins P. sempervirens may have been introduced to these shores as a dye plant; the roots are said to yield a henna shade of red.
 I am very happy to see it colonising rough ground and neglected areas. The haze of blue flowers attracts bees aplenty.      

 Mahonia aquifolium is in flower all over the place; it was popular as a garden shrub and has been much (over)used in municipal planting schemes. However its natural habitat is the understorey of the forests of the Pacific North-West of America.

 M. aquifolium is seen to much better effect where it has naturalised as a garden escape or remnant. The patch above was on a roadside bank under trees not far away from the specimen in the first photo. I fancy this is rather more like the way it grows in the wild.

 Town planning and suburbia have not been kind to this plant but it is in fact the state flower of Oregon. Indeed it is often referred to as Oregon Grape. The clusters of bright yellow flowers form bunches of dark blue-purple berries into autumn which do resemble small grapes and are said to be edible if cooked to make jams and jellies.