A pleasant day to remember

Yesterday I had 2 things to do. One was to see the eye doctor who is checking on my Contact Dermatitis. The Contact is retreating taking its flag of inflammation. The other was to assist a friend at noon. So at 10am my impulse was to go to Tim Hortons to while away that couple of hours but something in the air and light stopped me and I sat in the sunshine. The skylight was the colour of a robin's egg and so expansive. My upturned head could see the leaf buds beading on the hardwood limbs and one fancifully wonders if there are aerial communications among the trees. Two crows were enjoying the April warmth. Some April months can be not cruel. As the crows flew away they look like live Chinese calligraphy.

Tight neighbours-tulips and dandelions

Another bonus day for picking around cultivated perennials such as April flowers known as Glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa luciliae)

 The early blooming catches the human eye and the interest of the honey bees who buzz around.  Work on the tulips involve removing the dandelions, who tend to live cheek by jowl or more accurately root by bulb with the tulips. I was given a tool well designed for such a job. The working end has 3 claws which dig into the dandelion whorl and grip it by the root for pulling out. Every time I pull a dandelion out I can hear the tulip grunts " Ah aeration".   I pick out a plateful of the young dandelion leaves for lunch.

    

Repetition.

As a laggard, not intentionally, I do rituals behind schedule. So today I do my Easter hunt, 2 days late. This is induced by the grand kids showing the success of their hunt and the lovely Atlantic sunshine and a temperature of 12 degrees C. I look for my daffodils here and there and a single crocus. This hunt is provided by historical haphazard plantings. Almost 2 decades ago I put in bulbs where I can dig 2 inch holes with a pointed hoe. Year after year the green erect leaves of the daffodils come up. I appreciate this April repetition. In doing my round last year I saw the white crocus flower which reminded me of the origami white paper crane of peace and hope. It was only a month after the Japanese tsunami of March 11,2011. This means I saw the lone crocus for the first time. An unexpected delight though it is still proof of bad gardening. But now I know where it is and I look for it just now in the midst of the coarse grass.