When Dorothy and Frank left after morning coffee I walked out to the car with them to say good-bye.

On my way back to the house I bent over to dislodge a small dandelion from the middle of a baby violet plant.

Fatal! Once bent over the enthusiasm to join the coutch grass in battle automatically kicks in!

It was an hour later that the word "coffee" percolated through my head.....

I looked around with satisfaction at all that had been accomplished, - rubbed my aching back and went in search of a coffee companion.

Ah, there he is, - just coming around the corner of the house with the new little wagon attached to the garden tractor, - headed obsessively towards the pile of prunings that obstruct him finishing the mowing job from yesterday. Head high, eyes alight, - I could see that there was no way I was going to divert him with a cup of coffee.

So I joined the fray.

An hour later, having received instructions on the best way to load the wagon, and the very best way to open the barbed wire gate if you don't have the strength to move the loop at the top ( the last especially appreciated, - one thing the driver of the tractor mower is endowed with is good common sense) - it was almost time for lunch. (13-bean-and-a-ham-hock soup)

A good morning's work, but no pictures to show for it, - the camera never came out with me when I accompanied Dorothy and Frank to their car...

We had a little nap after lunch, and then went to vote, to buy some wine, and to have birthday cake with our youngest great-grandchild, - one year old today, the little darling.



A complicated job, getting the best of that Birthday Cake....

Happy birthday - Frank Sinatra

Ill Be With You In Apple Blossom Time (1996 Digital Remaster) - Jo Stafford With Nat King Cole

The usual hop, skip and jump in the garden today, despite a recalcitrant May.

There are buds on the peonies, and the Barn Flower (whose real name I don't know) is spreading its skirts all over the Shasta Daisies and the Iris, in preparation for sending up its great towering golden blossoms. It is not in the right place in the garden, but fear it is beyond me this spring and I can only attempt to dig in around the edges and make room for the other plants.

Which I did today, - about noon the wind died down a little, and the sun came out and stripped us of jackets and sweaters. So I carefully dug around the perimeter of the Barn Flower plant, trying to avoid damaging lilies and the blue flax it is attempting to cuddle up to.

In the meantime Charles was having a merry time on the new Yardworks tractor mower, (a wonderful gift from D and N), and by lunch time had made a pretty smart job of cutting the pasture.




The result is a nice expanse of green, but at the expense of that brilliant golden carpet of dandelions.



The lovely Ramona tulips continue their decline into blowsiness, - they remind me of dance hall girls, past their prime but still game for the party.



The Spurge is coming into its own. like a huge golden balloon that gets blown up a little more every day...



And next to it the Fairy Flower (whose proper name I have momentarily forgotten) begins its elegant summer long dance at the front of the stage.



Despite May's shyness in performing in full sunlight, the whole valley seems to have burst into bloom. A walk through the orchard makes one heady with the fragrance of apple blossoms.



The day ended with a little rain storm over the Cawston hills, and I fear that the moon will be hidden from us tonight by stormy clouds.

Memories - The Pianos of Chan

Flowers of the Hour

The Apple Blossom



The Dandelion



The Bleeding Heart



The tulips, - dancing too long - begin to look a smidgen blowsy and disheveled. But still delicately gay and not quite past their shelf life....





And the moon, - the moon tonight shines down on the chuckling coutch grass, working overtime and ready to surprise me in the morning with a daring foray...

This morning I rose early. Charles was still sleeping, and after I had enjoyed a cup of coffee the house was still quiet. Even Caspar. Only the cat and I shared the early morning.

I took the opportunity of slipping out into the garden with the Canterbury Bell vines that I have been nurturing in the bathroom for the last couple of months. Six plants in all, putting forth tendrils and ready to be planted out. I dug the little clump of grass beside the arbor which had succumbed to the winter; cleared out all the coutch grass that was threatening to take over and put three of the plants around the base of the little trellis that supported this same plant last year.

The other three I planted at the base of the birdhouse that hides within the Philadelphia Orange when it is in full foliage. Just as I finished things started stirring in the house, - Caspar and I went for a short walk, and then back home for breakfast.

I managed another half an hour skirmish with the coutch grass that has grown up along the pathway through the delphinium, the iris and the shasta daisies. It is so persistent, and has taken up underground company with the Chinese Lantern plant (physilis) that runs a subway through the garden with regular stops for thrusting up suburban branches of the Chinese Lantern Plant Company (Incorporated)!!!

Moved the pretty Turtle plant that has been crowded out by the pink Chrysanthemum to a spot at the front of the bed, next to the newly started Sage.

At noon we went to Penticton to see the doctor, with the hopes that within a few days we will be healthy and hearty and once again about our regular gardening business.

No sunshine today, and yet it wasn't dismal. The garden is doing as well in this cool weather as it would if May was pleasantly warm and sunny.

Enjoyed the Black Eyed Susans that cover the hillsides west of Penticton, and the Olalla bushes that still wear their white bridal finery.

Highlander - Corciolli

Just one more look at the flowering almond before the wind blows all those pretty pink petals away.

A miserable day in the garden, - not quite as bad as portrayed above - this picture was taken during a storm last August. But the wind was cold, and now the rain has come.

No planting done, but tomorrow is supposed to be another magnificent May Day......

The daffodils have faded, but the grape hyacinth are brilliant and all this week it's Tulip Time in the garden.

When the sun comes out, as it has today, they open their petals wide to the light and dance in the breeze.










And here is my favourite - 'Ramona', bright and golden and glowing.



They make a pretty showing in the garden on a nice bright breezy day.



Down the road, across the fence, the plum trees wear delicate white crinolines;



and the apple blossoms are showing pink promises of fragrant bloom.....



It all changes so quickly and yet so subtly, you hardly notice until you waken in the morning and something new has been added, - look, there's an errant cornflower growing out of the centre of that dandelion that is probably doomed for destruction, (poor thing). It pays to be mindful!!