Yesterday may have been May 1st, but it felt like March 1st – very cold and very damp. Honestly, I’m starting to get worried that we’re just going to jump right into summer without a spring! Both of us were grumbling about the weather. It was too cold to do any work outside and – as usual – it rained overnight and will rain this afternoon and evening, as well.
The trees have really taken off in the past week, with almost every one of them leafing out except for the catalpas. They are always the last to show their giant leaves. I just walked outside for a minute and noticed that the bee balm has doubled in height in the last couple of days.
I walked outside to check on the status of the lilac bush. Oh boy – the blossoms are opening!
I leaned in to inhale the scent. Oh, my goodness. I swear that scent is good for the soul. I have instructed Don to make sure he visits the bush today.
It’s cloudy today but it will be warmer, which is a good thing. I’m still holding off on buying any more plants until it gets a bit warmer, which should be in a few days. In the meantime, I’m fixing up the porch, reading books, and watching old movies with my husband. We watched a favorite of ours last night – Waterloo Bridge. Have you ever seen it? It stars Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor and it simply breaks my heart. It’s beautifully done. I think I’ve written about it before on the blog. Leigh is exquisite and I’m not just referring to her physical beauty. Her acting in this role is beyond compare. And Robert Taylor, who I normally can take or leave, is absolutely wonderful.
We’re also completely caught up in Unforgotten on PBS, which we’re watching every week. We just finished the fourth episode – there are only two left. As always, the writing, the acting, and the direction are excellent.
I’m about halfway through the Donna Leon mystery. I’m happy to say that I’m enjoying it. I’m glad I stuck with the first book. Sometimes sticking with something is worth it, especially if there’s a whole series to explore on the other side.
Today? I’m not sure. Maybe some mulching, but it’s going to start raining in the afternoon, so I might not get that done. Sigh. Come on, sun!
Happy Thursday.
you and don both take great photos, but that second one today is especially exquisite in its clarity, depth, details and colors … wow!
i’ve heard of people having photos stolen online and used without permission so am glad you put your name on them.
and oh yes, the scent of lilacs … a favorite for me, too!
thanks for all you share!
hope you get to do exactly what you want to do today. i am going to get done what i need to in order to enjoy even more my week at home (on vacation) next week! rain is in the forecast for three of those days and that makes it even better for me!
kathy in iowa
I know you love rain, Kathy, so that will be a perfect week off for you!
maybe it’s obvious (and not good) when i write a comment after reading your blog at work because i tend to write quickly and forget all i want to say. so here i am – at work – adding a ps …
i think photos as lovely as yours need to get published (if you’d like that) in magazines, used on seed packets, etc. … just putting that out there …
happy thursday!
kathy in iowa
You’re very kind! Thank you, Kathy.
Kathy is right…the clarity and depth of that second picture is breathtaking. It’s like I’m right there…ready to sniff. Ours are lagging behind yours by 3-4 weeks at least.
Your conversations with Don about the weather are about like ours. It’s raining again here…so my new plants will have to wait until tomorrow to be planted. The long range forecast for us…is cooler weather. I can deal with that…as long as we have more sunshine in the forecast.
I’m loving Unforgotten as well. Last season was on PBS maybe a month ago…I just had to watch. It is so good on so many levels.
Hope you get to mulch today! ;)
It’s really excellent!
I got to mulch one of the garden beds. There’s more to do, but the forecast said rain for later today and the front lawn was very long, so I mowed. I knew I had to.
I awoke early, so got out of bed. I can’t fall asleep again if I wake up and sun is coming into my bedroom, which happens frequently, since I have a very bright bedroom with big windows and a skylight. So I worked in the garden for a little bit, fed the kitties, and now fixing breakfast while reading blogs. Haha, hope I don’t burn the oatmeal! Lovely photos, Claudia…I’m going to research lilac and see if it will thrive in any of my garden spots. I have a honeysuckle at the back fence, but I have to climb over other plants to get to it. So, I end up smelling the blossoms only when I go back there to trim it or rake around it. it would. Be nice to have a lilac in a more accessible place. I’m almost finished with Bury Your Dead, and will ask the library to reserve for me for Trick of the Light.
I seem to remember some Californians who have grown a special variety of lilac that’s more adaptable to your climate. But that’s all I can remember, unfortunately!
That’s a great line about lilacs, Claudia – and spot on too. “That scent is good for the soul.” It’s just about one of the best fragrances in the world, isn’t it? I’m crazy about them, especially with being from Rochester – the world’s lilac capital. Back when I was teaching, just about every day in the Spring, one or two of my little kids would bring in a sprig or a branch of lilac from their gardens as a gift for me, the stems wrapped in damp paper toweling and aluminum foil. And what gifts they were! No kidding but on those days, I’d find myself – inadvertently – at my desk much more than usual, obsessing on that heavenly aroma. Hope you get RAFTS of lilacs this Spring! 💐
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It truly is. I love that scent! I remember taking lilacs to my teacher! My mom would wrap them in a wet paper towel – same as your students! Thanks, Janet!
Unforgotten — the best! Such good, complex writing and wonderful characters. I’ll be sad when it is over.
Oh, Lilacs! You’re ahead of us. But soon, I think. We’re still in “rain city!”
Have a wonderful day doing just what you want! You deserve it!
We are also still in ‘rain city’ but it held off today, so I grabbed the chance to mow the lawn (also mulched a bit.) At this time of year, the grass grows so quickly!
I am so looking forward to burying my face in some lilacs at the lake! Last year we didn’t have many, but probably that was because we pruned them a bit late the year before. Hopefully they will bloom and bloom and bloom this year! All of the years that we lived in CA we tried to get some to grow—but they just wouldn’t. I think that they need that hard winter to be happy bloomers!
I have more this year – I think because I took a reader’s advice and pruned the blooms in June.
They do need a hard winter. There are a few plants like that. Without a hard winter… no go!
When do you leave Florida?
Three or four days—eeeek!
xoxo
You are weeks ahead of us in blooms! Still rainy and cool here. It feels like mid-March.
We had to put our oldest Grey down today. It is so hard. The younger one just does laps through the house looking for her. The cold rainy weather is exactly fitting for our moods. I know in a few days/ weeks/ months the wonderfully happy times will be what we remember, but that takes a lot of time to get there. I know you understand. So many of us have been through this too many times.
I hope you and Don have a great day and enjoy those lilacs! The leaves are barely budded out yet on ours.
I am so, so sorry to hear this, Chris. My heart breaks for you and your family. It’s impossibly sad and such a tough decision to make. Sending you my love and sincere wishes for healing and peace. But healing will take time, as you know.
I firmly believe our pets never truly leave. They are nearby. Just a breath away.
Much love, my friend.
Thank you, Claudia. The sadness is breathtaking. It takes time, and I am thinking that the healing, once the weather is nicer so we are finally able to spend more time outside, will help a lot. So very hard. I thank you so much for your kind words. ♡
It is hard and painful and so heartbreaking. XO
to chris k in wisconsin …
oh, i am very sad for what you are going through so am sending my condolences and will add you to prayers. it is a bittersweet decision you had to make, but know you made that choice out of love for your grey. hope you do something nice for yourself every day and soon have peace about it all. and i agree with claudia … those we love (both human and furry) never truly leave us … and some wonderful day you will have that grandest reunion. in the meantime, here’s a virtual hug (if you want).
kathy in iowa
Thank you, Kathy. Your words mean so much. I sincerely appreciate them and the hug! ♡
Sympathies dear Chris as you make your way through this…even with our higher views of it all going through the grief can be something else.Sending Love
Thank you, Grace. Your sympathy is greatly appreciated. ♡
Oh Chris, I am so sorry to hear this. Your memories will carry you through, and will help to ease your pain I’m sure. But, it will take time. Hopefully, with sunshine and warmer weather predicted for us, you can get out there and dig in the dirt. Sometimes digging in the dirt, is the best medicine for a broken heart. Take care. ;)
Thank you so much, Donnamae. I am watching the weather, and it looks like we might actually see the sun on Saturday. What a treat that would be. I agree that digging in the dirt is a wonderful comfort, and look forward to doing so. The greenhouses are all opening, and I am thinking a nice walk around one of them on Sat might be a big help. Thank you for your kind thoughts. All of the little routine things we do every day, such as the night time rountine of going outside, getting a treat, etc. have nearly brought us to our knees. It takes a lot of time to find that new normal. ♡
Beautiful! images that lead me right into imagining the fragrance,
Thank-you Claudia!
You’re welcome, Grace!
May 1st definitely did NOT look like Spring around here …. snow had fallen AGAIN the night before. I wore my Winter coat to work and dug out my soft and warm mitts.
Sigh.
Today, it’s sunny and warm and things are a bit greener and the snow melted, so the moisture was helpful. Rain would have been more welcome. Hoping that was the last of it and now we’ll have a great Spring. Hope you do too!
X Chy
We are still in gray, gloomy and rainy!
Lilacs are so pretty and the scent is exquisite. i had so much energy working outside yesterday. I do not do well in warmer and sunny temperatures. Sixty degrees is my limit for warm weather. Glad you enjoyed the movie, Vivian Leigh is a beauty. I love Robert Taylor, he is one of my favorites..
Marilyn
Glad you enjoyed working outside, Marilyn!
I actually am thumbing thru (not exactly reading!) the most ‘quaint’ little book. It’s called HANDWRITTEN RECIPES: A Bookseller’s Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages. Author is Michael Popek, who ‘works in his family’s used bookstore (“by night, he’s the voyeuristic force behind ForgottenBookmarks.com and HandwrittenRecipes.com, where he shares the weird, wonderful objects he has found among the stacks at his store”)’. He lives in Oneonta, NY. Like, take a page where, tucked among the pages, was this recipe: “Chicken and Spaghetti Casserole” found in SPHERE by Michael Crichton, 1987. So, did somebody look up from their reading on the sofa, only to quickly scratch out a recipe they happened to see being cooked by some chef on the television? Odd little moments suspended in time, between the pages of a book, long forgotten. I saw something similar to this years ago, where a guy collected little yellow post-it note squares he’d find sticking to this & that, with someone’s peculiar note on it that makes no sense, so what could it possibly have been about? I guess a lot of us out there have the sleuth inside of us!
Thank goodness you have your reading when rain keeps you from the garden, Claudia!
Yes, I used to follow him on Instagram. I still do, I think, but I’ve not read a post of his for a while!
I cut some lilacs this morning. I crawled out of our bedroom window and onto the roof with my pole pruner and grabbed three lovely laden branches. One of our cherished older neighbors told us that her home had a lilac tree that was her favorite to climb so, of course, I set about making my lilac bush into a lilac tree. I miss her a lot, but I like to think our lilac tree blooms in her honor. I have to say that my lilacs are not as beautiful as yours though! I wish!
How did you make your bush into a tree, Roxie?
Just kept pruning it to a single stem, which eventually became a trunk. It doesn’t matter about how much foliage is up top, as long as you keep it to one trunk. Getting rid of the sucker growth each spring is a job, but the result is truly lovely…lots of fragrant blossoms on one manageable tree!!
Ah! Very interesting! Thanks Roxie!
What beautiful lilac pictures! We added lilac bushes to the garden last year but we’re so far behind what’s opening up in your neck of the woods. It’s been too cold. And lots of rain so the grass is major green now. If we could just have a day where it would hit, say, 55 I’ll bet everything – garden, trees – would pop. That would be awful if we were deprived of a real spring. Let’s hope the hot and humid holds off a bit.
It’s still too cold and rainy here, Kay. I have to say it’s depressing. Where is spring?