Pleasant lines

Feeling good today! I fulfilled my springtime ambition and visited Hi Hoe Nursery this afternoon. I didn't have my camera, but I took a few pictures with my phone. After I got home, I was e-mailing the pictures to myself when my phone battery died. Here are as many as I received from myself so far.

A little bridge in the "Hydrangea Walk"

Remarkably large hostas (bear sculpture in the background)

Sweet mossy bench

Shrubs and trees for sale

A week ago Friday, I stopped at the Garden Spot on my way home from work, so I have two nursery visits of plants to get in pots. I was working on my deck this evening and was delighted by the contrast between how I felt today and how I felt a couple weeks ago. Then when I even moved a couple flower pots from here to there, I had to sit and rest because I was exhausted. This evening I was moving things not only from here to there but also hither and yon, and not getting tired at all. In fact I'd still be at it now if the sun hadn't gone down.

When I came back from my evening walk with the dog, I looked at my house and yard and thought about the job I like so much and tried to recollect the line of the Psalm: "My lines have fallen in pleasant places." Actually it's "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage" (Psalm 16:6). It's true!

Cottontail

While walking the dog this morning, I saw a bunny rabbit in a neighbor's yard not too far from here. It sat perfectly still, and my dog did not notice it. I wonder where it lives.

Spring fever

It's been a rather sickly spring for me. Around March 15th, I believe it was, I started to have nasal congestion and related issues. Since then, I really have not been without them. Sometimes it's worse and I think I've got a cold and sometimes it's better and I think I'm getting well, then it gets worse again. This week, my doctor has decided to treat my allergies aggressively. I am using fluticasone, a steroid nasal spray, and taking a week of Prednisone, also a steroid.

Steroid suppress the immune system and, since allergies are basically the immune system gone wild, that makes sense.

Yesterday and today, I've had some crazy coughing fits that tire me right out, so I hope that stops now.

What's particularly frustrating is that this weekend we had beautiful warm weather and I really wanted to make my first big outing to Hi Hoe Nursery, but I just didn't have the energy. I have barely started to clean my deck up.

A little at a time, I am scraping the moss from between the cracks...

...and sweeping it into a pile, then disposing of it.

I have straggling and dead plants from last summer that I need to trim or get rid of.

I am hoping to have it at least neat and clean, if not blooming, by Sunday, Mother's Day. I traditionally host our family's Mother's Day celebration so that the mothers can relax. If the weather's nice, we could sit out there a bit.

I just looked at the 7-day forecast, and it says it will cool down and rain by next weekend. At least that would take the pressure off needing to be ready for outdoor entertaining.

We'll see. Those longer-range forecasts are not always correct.

Below, my dog demonstrates how to enjoy a deck.

First, relax.

Next, doze.

And that's really all there is to it.

Fragrant, fleeting lilacs

Well, my major preoccupations this week have been my sinuses and the weather, two topics I blog about too much, so I'll spare you.

Spring is making progress, however. Sunday night at a Bible study we were commenting that lilacs were already starting to bloom. That was a smidge early. I believe my sister-in-law says that every year but one her lilac has bloomed by May 8, so it was perhaps a week early to have it start April 28. We also discussed how quickly the lilac bloom season is over. They are always past their best by Memorial Day. I know that because I have sometimes thought it would be nice to put some lilacs on my flower-loving grandma's grave on Memorial Day, but they are never good enough any more. On the other hand, my sister-in-law often brings me a fragrant vase full of lilacs on Mother's Day, when I host the Mother's Day lunch for our family so that the mothers don't have to fix the food.

From Spring 2012. This year's blooms are not quite this full yet.

So early Tuesday morning

Hm. Tuesday. What can be said about it? It's after Monday and before Wednesday. Not the first day of the workweek. Not the middle, "hump," day.

I think in the old nursery song, it was the day "we iron our clothes." I don't own an ironing board at this point in my life. I figure wrinkles will fall out of my clothes as I wear them.

Coffee is brewing as I write. Oh, coffee, wonderful coffee. Meanwhile I must put on my dog-walking clothes and walk the dog.

According to the weather forecast, it will stay cool today, but get warmer every day, and be downright hot by the weekend.

Flowers, please

The last couple Saturdays, I've been disappointed when -- up in good time to watch P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on KCTS (a local PBS station) at 7:30 a.m. -- instead I see P. Allen Smith's Garden to Table. I like to see shows about flowers and landscaping and, while I don't precisely dislike cooking shows, I am less interested in them. Yesterday the Garden to Table show featured a recipe for kale soup, which is something I am very, very unlikely either to make or to eat.

There is a serious shortage of gardening shows in this world. I am down to two: P. Allen Smith's Garden Home and The Victory Garden. The Victory Garden also spends time on vegetarian recipes that don't interest me. "Chef Michel" always cuts up a bunch of vegetables and cooks them into fare that does not appeal to me in the least.

What can I say? I like red meat.

And when I tune into a gardening show I want to see gardens.

No rift in the lute

This week at bedtime I've been helping myself relax by finding long-playing sets of Renaissance instrumental music at youtube, particularly lute music.  Here is just a two and a half minute sample of the kind of thing I like.