April showers

When it stopped raining, there were some plants in the garden just crying out for their new growth to be noticed. Among them were this allium (above) and an aquilegia (below).

And yesterday when we went out for a walk, more new faces were putting in an appearance. Coltsfoot flowers shoot up before the new leaves come up, and are one of the earliest to be seen by the wayside.

Today we celebrated the Festival of Great Master Keizan, who devised many of the ceremonies still used in Soto Zen.
Our journey to the Abbey was along roads with plenty of big puddles, past fields of floods and churned mud. It rained all day.
When we got home, the ice cream van was playing 'Raindrops keep falling on my head'.