I am out in the garden early this morning, determined to clear the spot where these pretty double pink tulip bulbs lie buried under a great mound of violet leaves. The plant bears no flowers, and I am confounded as to where it has come from and how completely it has taken over every bit of space between the legitimate flowers. There are tiny purple violets blooming next to it, behaving as all sweet fragranced violets should. I will have to google it....

After digging up the roots I carefully remove the dirt from around them and rescue dozens of bulbs of all sizes. Tomorrow's job will be to plant them in the freshly prepared soil.

The morning is still cool and I would like to continue my partnership with the shovel, but I am getting tired and it is getting close to coffee time. And so I go and find my coffee partner and warn him of impending refreshments.

We sit on the back steps and chat about where in heaven's name the curtain rod accessories could have gone, and how goes it with the sharpening of the rototiller.

Charles is facing east, and suddenly he draws my attention to the blue sky and an eagle circling above the hills. I run for the camera, - he is still there when I return, searching for an updraft to take him far into the sky.



Before he finds it I am able to take a quick picture, and then he is off and out of sight in the twinkling of an eye. What a great gift to see this lovely bird soaring, and I thank Charles for his quick eye.

Coffee and muffins finished, I gather up the tray and go into the house to make apple crisp from the windfall Macintosh I gathered first thing this morning, - mmmm delicious!