Beautiful little maple leaves. I can’t believe how quickly every tree has leafed out this week. I suppose it’s a combination of the bizarre hot spell and rain – which we’re getting today. Now, almost every tree has leaves. The catalpas – always the last to leaf – are still bare.

I overdid yesterday. I started lopping off brambles, trying to open up some areas of the back forty that have been overrun by them. They’re like the cockroach of the plant world. They just keep going and multiplying. And then I mowed the back forty and the corral and the grassy area behind the kitchen.

I took a break, had some lunch, thought about showering. But then I looked at the front lawn, which was getting quite long very quickly and knew it was going to rain today and I wanted it to look good when Don came home. So I mowed it.

At the end of the afternoon I was well and truly exhausted. My arm muscles ache from using the lopper. My leg muscles ache from mowing.

And the irony? Don asked me this morning if I could come there, rather than him coming here, because he’s tired and his legs ache. That’s fine – he deserves to rest and he’s really sore at the moment.

But that’s why I mowed the dang lawn!

Anyway, I’m going in for the day and night tomorrow and I’ll come home on Tuesday. I have to plant seeds, weed, and mulch this week. I can’t put that off. And there will be a rainy day or two, so I have to get cracking. Soon, everything will be potted and planted and mulched and I’ll be able to pull way back and just enjoy. And spend a bit more time in the city with Don.

More pretty pink crabapple buds.

Happy Birthday to my brother Dave, who would have been 71 today.

Happy Sunday.