Flowers for Mother's day

Spring came early this year. The April flowers were up in March, and by mid April everyone who has seasonal allergies were already suffering as the trees got an early start. Passover was early too, but the unseasonal warm weather early in March meant the snow was gone. My escaped horseradish stretched it's first shoots through the bricks around the tub that is supposed to prevent it (and my mint patch) from spreading onto my lawn and taking over the garden. With the third wave of Covid raging, we did not have a big seder. I delivered pieces of our first spring harvest to serve as maror for my mom and a few friends, the rest I used in very intimate seders with my kids. 

The life in the garden has been teeming. The first butterfly of the year, a Mourning Cloak, passed by in April to feast on the nectar of my hyacinths. The squills have finally started to take off with their bobbing blue heads dotting the dead leaves of last fall. I waited to rake and clean up so that whatever was hibernating in the mulch or eating the seeds or using the dried stalks for nesting material could enjoy the bounty, even if my yard did not look as pretty as my neighbours' for a while. I was rewarded with jewel red lily beetles attacking my baby oriental lilies early this year. I hope at least there were plenty of lady bugs in there too.

We have a new resident of the back yard, for the first time a rabbit has found us. The kids named it Jojo. Initially I thought it might be a domestic rabbit escapee, as it seemed to be more comfortable in our presence than I expected of a wild rabbit, but it definitely is able to fend for itself. It spends a lot of time hiding behind the hyssop in complete camoflage, or in a sunny spot beside the fence hidden by one of Iulia's clematises. I suspect the choice of locations keeps it out of sight of Bella, my neighbours' excitable little dog, who is diligent in barking at anything that moves beyond her fence.  I had a recent discussion with Iulia ascertaining that they do not eat rabbit stew and will tolerate our sheltering of a critter that potentially can wreak havoc on our gardens. I assured her that with the exception of one time when I gently startled Jojo away from sampling on my tulips, the rabbit seemed quite content to munch on clover and dandelion flowers, of which I have enough to spare and then some. 

This week the flowers bloomed. My magnolia missed the memo again and did not start off with flowers, but leaf buds, until yesterday, as every other magnolia in town is looking haggard, it produced one single flower bud. We are making some progress, if not in quantity, at least in timing. Last year the first ever bud emerged in July leaving me quite puzzled. The crab apples, apple and lilac simultaneously exploded into colour yesterday too. The rest of the mid-spring flowers got into the action. Since I moved so many things around last year, and planted a whole new bunch of tulips, it's been fun to be surprised by what is growing where (I always forget where I put things, to my delight the next year!) It was a garden-perfect Mother's day. 

Zara, Ori and Ori's partner Hannah gave me some dandelion weeding time as a Mother's day gift, followed by take-out for dinner and a Pictionary game. A perfect ending to a perfect spring day.