saturday and further reports

The large patch of dirt in my backyard, which I affectionately call our community garden, was riddled with nagging weeds -- yard violets, some grass, and other local pests. Frankly, I didn't want to spend my day digging out the roots of these weeds, but I also find that doing that now pays great dividends later in the year, and by ignoring them now, it will make weeding later a much more difficult effort.

And there aren't any mosquitoes now.

So I did it. And I raked more sweetgum balls in the front. And I gathered the stray tree limbs and branches that fell in different parts of the yard. And I began popping up dandelions out of the yard. I think of it as some kind of mental therapy and aerating the yard.

My lilacs that I planted last year are all putting on buds. The pale pink tulips planted in the fall are now turning into an apricot or peach color as they open and the mid-day's light shines through their petals. They are bounded by white daffodils that are continuing to bloom even as the yellow ones have ended for this year.

Hostas have started stirring. The smaller leafed ones are out and up. The larger leafed green ones are at least six to eight inches high. The false forget-me-nots are full of tiny blue blooms. And the astilbe have all broken out. The bleeding heart popped up with their pink and white bracketed blooms almost overnight. The columbine have leaves but no flower stalks yet.

And I have yet to mow the grass. This must happen in the next couple of days. Frankly, I prefer the clumpy waves of unmowed grass, but in this, I bow to the convention of my time and try to keep it clipped.