An appealing morning in the garden, before the clouds gathered and the wind grew chill. Spring continues to languish just outside our ken. Nevertheless, the May/June flowers are flourishing. The lovely new green of the delphiniums spreads against the fence, and that sweet June twosome, - the Iris and the Oriental Poppy are getting ready to delight us once again. The Forsythia is bursting its buttons, and I expect it to be gloriously golden in just a few days, along with all the daffodils that are skimming along on the verge.

And the perennial alyssum is beginning to bud up..... If I were to burrow down beneath the enormous Elephants Ears I'm sure I would find new stalks with little pink swellings.

Here is one of the peonies we brought from the Lost Garden, along with the sweet violets that couldn't bear to be parted, and came along with them. It sends its rosy, succulent stalks through last year's dried leaves, and I hope that this year they will begin to regain some of the beauty and vitality that they had before we moved them.




The Lenten Roses continue to bloom, and another small purple Hellebore is just making itself known.

This evening we had a visit from a flock of sleek Redwing Blackbirds, who had discovered a newly filled feeder.

The Starlings occasionally turn the meadow into a shiny black carpet, - and here they are, startled starlings in flight...


In the house Husband's prunings from the Flowering Almond and the Forsythia promise a pretty sight outside - soon

I gaze across the valley and see the lovely puffs of golden willow, the red of the maples and the faint green aura that surrounds the poplars as they all prepare to burst into those magnificently tender green welcoming costumes that should lure spring along the creeks and through the meadows and right up to our back doors....

I have a great longing for a picture taking drive down south, along the river, and around by Ginty's Pond to see what is happening there. Perhaps the turtles will be out sunning themselves - other fans of Ginty's Pond tell me about them, but I have yet to see them.....life continues to hold such unseen pleasures.