• Gray day yesterday. So far: equally gray day today. Friday’s warm temps dropped twenty degrees by yesterday. This year’s erratic spring weather is consistent in its inconsistency.

• First up: I’ve decided to let the cedar Adirondack chairs weather naturally and not  paint them. After reading up on the care of cedar – staining and adding a protective coat every year, or painting and having to repaint every year – those options looked less and less attractive to yours truly. For goodness sake, our kitchen is in desperate need of a paint job and I still haven’t got around to it! Painting and me = oil and water. My only hope for painting the kitchen is to enlist my husband, who, as you well know, is currently far away.

I did buy some cushions yesterday and am going to look for more today. Also on the shopping list: mulch and more mulch, top soil, and potting soil.

And plants to put in the pots.

• The daffs/narcissus in the woods. I have the same kind of narcissus in my garden, and it’s just about ready to bloom. Interestingly, the yellow daffodils on the edge of the woods didn’t bloom this year. They are usually the first to bloom and they came up earlier than usual because of the abnormally warm temps, so I’m wondering if the extreme temperature fluctuations we had this spring were the culprit. I think they were.

So delicately beautiful.

• The catalpa, always the last of the trees to leaf out, is just beginning to show some baby leaves. I love this tree, home to giant heart-shaped leaves and flowers in June, as well as to our resident honeybees.

• Vicki was noting the other day in a comment the disappointment she feels when a favorite blog suddenly fades away; more and more time between posts, less and less substance, less of the author’s voice, etc. I have felt the same disappointment when a blogger either stops blogging or lets months go by between posts. Some of those bloggers have taken to Instagram because, I presume, it’s quicker and easier to post a photo and a short caption. Of course, the conversation that a blog affords between a blogger and the readers can still exist on Instagram, but, let’s face it, it’s shorter, less revealing, and requires less commitment.

I like Instagram and I post there. But for me, it could never take the place of sharing my thoughts and ideas and the story of our life here at the cottage. There’s depth and then there’s a sound bite. But, I equally understand the demands of daily life, especially if one is younger and raising a family. Finding the time to blog can be very hard, indeed. And, I also understand those bloggers that have been blogging for a number of years running out of steam. Boy, do I understand that! It can be daunting and frustrating and it takes a lot  of time. Fortunately for me, I still enjoy it and I remain committed. Someday that might change. But for now, I’m good.

Instagram affords a lot of people the space to share their lives in a more manageable, less time consuming way.

The same holds true for readers as well. I have longtime readers and newer readers and, along the way, some readers who have been fairly consistent commenters will just disappear. Some time will pass and I will suddenly think, “Where is so-and-so?” Just as you might worry about a blogger if they suddenly stop blogging, I worry about a reader who stops commenting (though there is certainly no commenting requirement around here!)

Sometimes I write to the commenter to ask if everything is okay. Mostly, I try not to take it personally and wish them well. Maybe they’re tired of the blog, or of me, or maybe I’ve said something that didn’t sit right. I have no way of knowing; all I can be is myself.

Just as I’ve had readers disappear, I’ve certainly moved on from some blogs that I used to read all the time and I am guilty of not commenting as often as I used to. I guess it’s the way of the world, or at least my world, at present.

Anyway, all this is to say that I understand. We develop a relationship with blogs over the years. We come to know the bloggers and care about them. I come to know you and care about you. But, just as life itself involves friendships/relationships that remain consistent through the years or eventually fade away as our needs evolve and change, the same holds true for bloggers and readers.

But it does make one sigh, doesn’t it?

When you find a lilac shaped like a heart, you have to take a picture of it.

Happy Monday.