This morning, I woke to birdsong, and it took me back to when my children were small and watched Winnie the Pooh.  Those were gentle days.  Often, I sat down with them because I loved Rabbit's garden savvy (although I couldn't understand how a gardener could be so grumpy, especially a gardener in England).  I adored Owl who wanted to sing the dawn chorus, but of course, he couldn't.  In fact, he was dreadful.  I tried to find the episode on YouTube for you, but it wasn't there. The sound outside my bedroom window tells me spring is on her way in spite of the snow forecast for tomorrow.  Yes, snow, but let's talk of happier things. Thanks to everyone who entered the great glove love giveaway.  From all of your comments I confirmed: Gloves protect our hands from stickers and stinging nettles. Our hands and fingernails stay cleaner.  No...

Dear Carol, Mary Ann and all of our Gardening Friends, Well, Daylight Savings Time began two days ago.  So, today, I'm tired.  You wouldn't think one little hour could make so much difference, would you? HH walked in the door from work last night with two, blue/green eggs in his hands.  The girls have started laying.  Before Bear turned them into brownies, I snapped a photo.  To me, nothing says spring like a beautiful chicken egg, or a chocolate bunny for that matter. Work continues on the potager.  The blocks we bought were supposed to fit easily together, but guess what, they don't.  I think the guys now have a rhythm going since they've nearly finished two beds today.  Hard, hard work.  HH and I spent half of Sunday working on one of the walls to see how high it needed to be, and we had to tear it down...

Chilly.   Cloudy.  Chance of rain.  This is Bloom Day 2010. Although we are behind last year's bloom day beauties, the front garden is still on track with bulbs popping up everywhere, and the beautiful Viola x wittrockiana 'Imperial Antique Shades' F-1 hybrids lend a softness to the border.  I still need to trim the dead foliage from the nandinas.  It was a hard winter for all of us. Instead of complaining about my chilly (43F) late-winter, early-spring, I'm going to reflect on it just a moment.  Last year, everything was sunny and beautiful and warm.  Like Athena, who emerged fully grown from Zeus's head, the plants fairly sprang from the ground already in bloom.  Do you remember what happened later?  On April 8, 2009, we had a freeze which killed the Japanese maple in the front bed (fortunately the landscaper who installed it covered its replacement), and several of my...