And now for something entirely different

Today was a lovely warm day, so I put a pullover sweater over my t-shirt, and spent most of the morning outside working on my little tree ornaments.  David was puttering in the garden, doing all sorts of things to get it ready for when my friend Andrea comes to do some gardening for us.  Made me think of the old joke about women cleaning their homes for when the cleaning lady arrives.  I even ate lunch outside, but then the wind increased and it got just a little too cold for me to work out there.  After lunch it was off to Starbucks, but I brought my coffee home, as the wind had died and it was nice enough to be outside again.  Setting up my work I knocked the almost full large cup of coffee all over the patio.  Bad words were spoken.

While David was working this morning, I took a bunch of pictures of my garden, thinking of taking  a page out of  The Last Homely House site, and giving you a tour of my garden.  If you get bored, don't worry, I won't be insulted if you stop watching.  Besides, if you did , how would I know?

Despite my worrying, the bloom on the Nanking Cherries appears to have survived.  This is the tree we worry about the most.  Most of it has died off, and been cut out, but this year it's putting on quite a show.  Some of the new growth coming up from the bottom even has some bloom. 

The other tree is becoming quite gnarled, and the bit to the right may have to come off.  Unfortunately, the larger portion on the left is growing very low and leaning to the left more and more every year.  This is the one that has beautiful fruit, in the neighbour's yard.

Earlier this year David transplanted some rhubarb from under the Nanking Cherries to the other side of the yard, along the garage.  It seems to be doing quite well, but we know that it will take about 3 years until it's firmly in  place.

The Rhubarb to the right of the above is our main patch, and the one we have harvested every year so far.  David is already talking about making a pie.  Maybe this weekend.

The peonies seem to grow more by the minute.  David insists he can see them growing.

The Rhubarb patch that is still under the Nanking Cherries is really coming into its own this year, but I'm afraid we're going to lose it.  When Andrea was over Saturday evening, she pointed out a plant growing in the same area that she said was a noxious weed, and needed to be removed asap.  Purple Bell Flower, I think.  The yard next door is absolutely full of it, and once she pointed it out to us, we could see quite a bit of it in the garden on that side, and even starting to invade the grass.  This is one of the jobs she is going to do for us.  She is a very well educated woman, and has taught at the university level, but is unable to find a job right now, and is working at a plant nursery.  That job ends soon, and then she will give us some time, until she can find something else.

As usual we don't have to worry about the day lilies.  They come back every year, healthy and strong, no matter what we do to them.  If the money lasts, we may ask Andrea to dig these out for us, as well.

I'm worried about my Mock Orange.  the only sign of life is a few leaves just coming right at the top of the bush.  Everything else appears dead.I'm thinking that we may have to take it out this year.  I've spoken about it before.  It greeted me the day we move in with a glorious display of flowers, and has bloomed the first week of July every year since. .

Of course, what walk through the yard would be complete without checking out the bird feeders.  These two have been added within the last year.

We still have a few Lady Slippers.  I think we've counted about 5.  I'm hoping that Andrea will be able  to weed this flower bed for us, but David doesn't see it as a priority, so we'll have to see.

 The Spirea doesn't appear to be doing well.  It looks like someone cut away about 3/4 of it, but it wasn't us.  We may lose this one as well, this year.

Only within the last couple of days have we seen much in the way of life in the front flower beds.  These plants look pretty dismal but there are small leaf buds on them, so we're optimistic.

The ornamental Maple bush is doing fine.  It's sheltered in the corner of the steps, and pruned every winter by the rabbits.

 That's the garden today.  I'll let you know if there is any change as the days grow warmer ( I hope they grow warmer).