Visiting the Garden on the Hill

It was only a short visit, - and very ambivalent.  On the one hand I was thrilled to be there and to see daffodils poking a couple of inches above the ground, but on the other hand my heart sank when I realized how much work awaited to get all that garden tidying done before spring came calling in earnest.

This is a picture of the garden at the beginning of March, last year.  

We had just had a flurry of snow, but it is indicative of 

the tons of debris that need to be cut down and hauled away, - alas!

In my haste to get things done this morning I remembered my gloves and my snippers, but I forgot the camera, or I would show you just how many suckers stand upright in the midst of the Philadelphia Orange;  just how overgrown the climbing roses are and how badly they need to be pruned and tamed;  just how sodden are the leaves that lie over the lily bed and the mess of old stalks that are entangled where the peonies are showing lovely scarlet tips coming through the soil.  Whilst the sweet pea vines,  -  a great heap of crisp, creamy pods and crinkled branches!!!

Eventually I got my mind around this dilemna which involves a lack of time and energy versus the pleasure of being in the garden again, and I decided that I need to hire an intrepid interim gardener for a few days.

I came home with a few budding sticks of forsythia, three bird feeders that had been left amongst the lushness of the garden and a small Chinese pergoda chime.  

Soon we will be enjoying the golden blooms.

For those who might be interested I saw no signs of activity at the Chinese Underground Railway Stations

but no doubt a few days of sunshine will fire up the engines again!

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is H and I figure there is nothing better to describe H than Happiness.

Happiness is an inside job...William Arthur Ward

Happiness is not an ideal of reason,

but of imagination.   Immanuel Kant

There are some days when I think I am going

to die from an overdose

of satisfaction.   Salvador Dali

marielliott

Happiness is a conscious choice, not

an automatic response.  Mildred Barthel

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live

that his happiness shall depend as little as possible

on external things.   Epictetus

Smile........ be Happy

Lots of other great stories about the letter H over here at

ABC Wednesday with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her Happy Band of Helpers.

s

Two beautifully benign days, - warm and quiet, drawing us irresistibly out into the soft air.

We poked around, snipped here and there, - Charles did some serious pruning.  I found no bulbs poking through the sodden leaves and black earth, and a couple of inches down there was still a hard core of icy soil that awaits some heavy sunshine before it is pliable and soft in the hand.

Sid came to see us, bearing great long branches of pussy willow, - it was a little like bringing coals to Newcastle as the tree that nestles up against the garden shed finally made known its ancestry......

a gorgeous willow, flinging its pussy-willowed branches high into a blue summery sky

and the clouds, - so soft and promising

Today we were all psyched up to go to see the ophthalmologist, and then discovered our appointment was for next Monday instead, so we have another lovely day to spend in the back yard.

Callie is ecstatic, - she is not allowed in the front yard, not being a street-wise cat!