To Plant

 This is it. THE weekend's here. Time to plant. Can hardly wait. Weather's perfect! Time to find bucket, and trowel, and boots and and and and.........and coax Spencer off the pot. Wake up , Spencer. You are being replaced....with flowers.I don't think Spencer can fully appreciate the monumental task ahead.

  Next door neighbours have made a scarecrow. It looms over my fence.  It's for a party they are having at Cordelia's house.  The pots are full of dirt. Bench is groaning under the weight of green stuff. Tables covered. Flats organized by shade flowers, sun flowers, sun or shade or shade or sun flowers.....

 This year I had extra. And no where to plant them . Can't really never have toooooo many flowers.

  SO I took empty ice cream pails, carved out drain holes in the bottom and stuffed them till they would stuff no more.   They come complete with handle. Portable. They would make neat gifts.

 Decided to plant more variety this year. Less all of one thing. last year I grouped all the geraniums together, all the begonias, etc. Everything felt so heavy and clunky.  This year, I started my flat search a lot earlier, and planted more seeds outside, to cut down on cost.Was able to find many flats  at cheaper prices when I went through grocery stores, hardware stores, that sort of place. The greenhouses were over the moon expensive.

 Geraniums: Maverick Pink, Hot orange ( my favourite...got tons of those)Bullseye Cherry, Maverick Rose. Patriot Lavender BlueIvy Geraniums in magenta, lavender, red, violet, mostly orange though....Hot like fire .

 Durango Red Marigold,Knee Hi Sweet Pea, Climbing Sweet Pea,Verbeena Hurricane Hot Pink, Vinca Vine, Bonaza Oreange Marigold, Gazania Jupiter orange,

 Centradania Floribunda ,Mentha Suaveoleons,Solanum Jasminoides Potatoe Vine, Ipomoea Ace of Spade, Torenia Velvet Moon,Petunia Littunia Bicolour Black, Thunbergia Sunny Susy Red Orange,Petunia Littletunia Purple Blue,

 Verbeena Donalena Raspberry, Riveria Rose Lobelia, Passiflora Blue,Verbeena Blue Trailing, Verbeena Romance Mix, Super Elfin Lipstick Impatiens ( Don't you just love that name??)

 Tuberous Begonia, Rhodochiton ( my favourite vine of all) and Supertunea Black Cherry ( new new new....looks like it has a strong cherry colour) . And a tray of the only Black Mamba Black Petunias I ever found in town....

                       So many flats.      They last ones sit on the porch  waiting .
                                  
                        Spencer, the neighbour's cat, now ousted from his favourite pot of dirt, has taken to sitting on the arbour, staring woefully. Until today, when he found he had two chairs on the porch, ,covered with green towels, waiting for him. Yes, Spencer,  you are  always welcome........

New Sweet Peas....

               All of a sudden things are growing. Everything is new again.

            And it's green. Green. Green. Dirt  loamy and soft and warm.
"The year's at the spring and the day's at the morn; God's in his heaven, all's right with the world. " (from Robert Browning's "Nature")

 The Sweet Peas (Lathryus odoratus) (what a great name they have!) seeds  have started shooting. Everywhere. Not summer without sweet peas. Hope they bloom. Some years they're fussy and won't do much.  Some years there are so many I can't pick them fast enough. Sometimes they are just green leaves and never go to pods. Sometimes they make so many pods and I can't collect the seeds fast enough for next year....

 The greenhouse is full. Ready to pop. And the sweet peas  are like little soldiers . Marching down the hill in uneven rows. One day it was just dirt. A place for the neighbourhood cats to roll.  These  have a royal background.....
 
  At the  turn of the 20th century a new type of sweet pea was discovered by Silas Cole, main gardener for the Earl of Spencer at Althorp.  The home of the future Princess of Wales, Diana Spencer.

     Sweet peas have such an old heritage. The traditional flower for remembrance. One of the first varieties of "lathryus odoratus" was the "Countess Spencer" at the first show of the National Sweet Pea Society in 1901.

 So, while the sweet peas start  to unearth themselves,  time to get  flats hardened by moving them to the porch.

            And  I think I don't have enough flowers for the pots.  Plenty of places to pick up flats. Cheap. Just have to scout around a bit. And wait for the Spencer sweet peas to  start climbing  the cages. And wonder what the cats are thinking......

Day of the "Cobras"

 Monday found Cordelia and her  house mate, Patience, sitting on the windowsill.They were watching down below. It was very interesting.

           They saw Spencer. Sitting in his pot.

          They could see the  Centaurea  in full bloom. It reseeded itself from last year. Probably helped along by yours truly. I collected seeds last year.  I happily sowed them everywhere.

 The ferns, though, newly out,  looked like Cobra heads.  They were a little scary. They writhed their way up out of the soil and seemed to twitch.

 Cordelia came out for a look. She peered over the fence. Saw Smokey and Spencer having snack.

            The ferns were positively diabolical. Definitely cobras.They looked like cobras.They curled like cobras. ( When I was little,  ferns would come up thru the grass. I would run screaming from the "cobras", and I wouldn't walk on the grass for anything.)

             Only Patience was left on the windowsill. Watching from above. Smart, poofy cat.
                                                                  Safer up there.

                  Spencer decided to scare Cordelia. She growled. She thought the cobras were after her.

Spencer left. Cordelia sat on her Moai  and looked around to see  if he was gone.It was just her and the "cobras".

 
 Cordelia decided it was safest to be home in her windowsill with Patience. No Spencer. No Smokey. No cobras. Just sun. Lots of sun. And a snoozy afternoon.

Up Above, Down Below

           The first rose of the season, a few weeks early,tucked away by the stairs.
                                   Up above, just like any other spring day.

                    The Pasque flower blooms. The weeds flourish.It's a ho hum sort of day.

 But down below,in the depths, there has been another leak. Another one. Ugh. Third? Fourth?I forget. I've lost count.  This one is the worst. Maybe this will be the last. A 20 year old leaky pipe, rotting away at the side of the house, between floor joists. Took them an entire day to fix it, cause it was in such a weird place. Black mould cascading happily everywhere. Hidden. Ugh.

  Spencer , of course, on the surface of his world, has no idea about leaky pipes.

  The Giant Hosta collects rain water in the morning. Water. Leaks. Ugh. I've  had my fill . And there's still the kitchen to tear up and the side of the house; the foundation plate has been damaged.

               Up above, in the light,  sweet peas are planted,  lettuce stuffed into sea soil and Centaurea  starting to bloom. Much nicer than down below. In the mess.

                      Cranesbill flourishes.

 While down below,  walls and ceilings are torn up , stuffed into bags. It still smells like rotting rats. That mould smell. That dreadful overwhelming stink, that they are drying out with massive machines.

                   The garden needs weeding. I should do that. Today. Get away from the sound of those drying machines downstairs. Sounds like a plane  landing inside the house.

                        A new shawl  gets Spencer's attention.He's all lovey dovey today.

                                Ferns grow  wild again. Here. Up above. It's nice above.
                                                           Belies the upheaval underneath.

               Back down below, it's only the start.  Maybe there really is a dead rat somewhere. A couple of years ago I could have sworn that one summer there was something running back and forth in the vents. I don't really think so. Just water. And mould. And creepy crawly slithery things ....ugh.

       
                             And Spencer, the neighbour's cat, is happiest up above.