I checked out the back forty tonight, after supper. My delicate Rosina violets are blooming, as are many of the miniature daffodils. The Jack Snipes in the TPN garden are the prettiest. The Glory of the Snow has turned the lawn under the crab apple tree into a brilliant blue blanket, which has miniature daffies and white violets interspersed through it.
My white dogwood has many buds on it; the pink dogwood has leaf buds, but no flower buds. The bark of the young birch is "papering". Maybe by next year it will have turned white. The tiny irises, a rich royal blue with yellow throats, have finished their moment in the sun. The crocuses are gone, also, but the small tulips are fully budded, and the forsythia is ready to pop open.
Dave has trimmed back the purple lilac quite severely, and cut the lower branches of the big pines. We hope to move the Dollhouse into the spot behind the garage, instead of in the middle of the yard. Not only will it then open up the garden to be admired, but it will also protect the Dollhouse from any falling limbs from the old split maples.
In the house, the wintered-over geraniums are budding, and the tomatoes I started from seed a month ago are about 6-7 inches tall! Even most of the peppers are finally poking through. It looks like the cuttings of rosemary made it through the winter and are ready to transplant. I bought some peat pots for transplanting some of the tomatoes and I'll put the rosemary into a couple of them.
My walk was refreshing tonight. I found a carpet of purple violets up on South Frontage. It was about an 8 x 10 foot patch. Lovely. The happiest moment on the walk, however, was seeing the deer that were waiting at the edge of the wooded area. There were three of them. The nearest one was small, and seemed to be interested in this strange human walking by. The other two (Mama and Papa?) prevailed, though, and they suddenly darted off into the woods.
This is such a fecund time of year. I find myself holding my breath when I'm outdoors, as if a curtain is about to rise on an incredible drama. I check the yard twice a day when there is time. And it usually has changed from the early a.m. walkabout to the evening stroll.
In which I check out the back forty and take my favorite walk
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