I spent a large part of the day outdoors yesterday. It was still quite breezy out there, but I was determined to get the impatiens I had purchased exactly a week ago in some pots. Finally.

But a small sampling of the many pots – hanging and not hanging – of impatiens. They work perfectly on the shady porch and last well into the fall. It’s a no brainer for me. I still have to get hanging plants for the front of the porch and some geraniums for the whiskey barrels by the funky patio. All in good time, all in good time.

We mowed the front yard and then collapsed on the glider, savoring our favorite view – the one that looks down the porch toward the big garden bed, the sugar maple, the red shed and the lilac bush. Sigh. It’s good to be back out there.

We’ve had so much rain that the plants are doubling in size overnight. Well, I’m sure it’s not overnight, but it sure seems that way!

And look:

Peony buds! My favorite, favorite flower, complete with the requisite ant. I dragged Don around the yard yesterday, showing him the peony buds, the lilacs that are starting to fade and drop to the ground, the buttercups that are growing on the edge of the lawn, and the leaf buds on the shag hickory.

Do you want to see them? I find them fascinating.

This is the way the bud looks at the end of a branch.

(This shag hickory is somewhat young, having grown from a seedling during the course of our time here at the cottage. It’s mama is the huge shag hickory on the far edge of our property that inexplicably faded away and died about three years ago. We’ve yet to get it taken down. I was so saddened by its loss that the only comfort I could find was that this little whipper snapper was just across the driveway on the main part of the lawn. It’s not so little any more.)

This is the leaf bud as it starts to open. You can see the little leaves emerging.

And this is what they look like as they break free. Isn’t that incredible?

I had a grateful day yesterday. Grateful for this property that we love. Grateful for all the green growth emerging from the ground. Grateful for lilacs and their scent. Grateful for the glorious payoff that my perennial gardens give us every year. All that patience (not always my strong suit) and willingness to put in the time to establish the gardens has produced something beautiful that makes me incredibly happy and satisfied. Grateful for trees and bunnies and groundhogs and the deer I saw walking through the woods this morning and robins that take a bath in our birdbath and butterflies and the honey bees that have returned to the catalpa tree and the sound of birds chirping as the day begins.

Happy Wednesday.