Friday Favourites

 

The perfume of the lilacs came in little 

puffs on the crystal air.

L. M. Montgomery (Magic for Marigold)

This evening the scent of lilacs wafts from the dining room table. We have three lilac bushes and sadly, one is coming out tomorrow to make room for the patio expansion. So I am cutting blooms with abandon. Pounding the woody stems with a hammer seems to make them last longer in vases. 

Days filled with sunshine and a few puffy clouds make Spring delightful. I love this weather, but we do need some rain as the ground is already quite dry.

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts

I want to think, all the walks I want to take,

all the books I want to read,

and all the friends I want to see.

John Burroughs

Clouds of blue forget-me-nots fill the ground beneath the rose bushes that have transformed from bare sticks to full leaf. A few tiny buds appear - a promise for the weeks to come. Red tulips are almost over, but there are more in other spots. 

I'm spending lots of time in the garden, moving some plants, weeding, and looking at everything with a more critical eye than usual as I try to bring to life my vision for this space. 

Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content

to walk the same way hundreds of times, or thousands; 

perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths,

to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find

the spaces between fences.

Neil Gaiman

Our one rhododendron is filled with showy blooms holding gold-tipped stamens. They are very pretty when looked at individually, but I find the mass of them a wee bit overpowering. I didn't find any children under the rhododendron, but I did find a large yellow tulip, one that I never planted. Did a squirrel bring it from a neighbour's garden hoping to nibble on it in the winter and then forgot all about it?

Go out, go out I beg of you

and taste the beauty of the wild.

Behold the miracle of the earth

with all the wonder of a child.

Edna Jaques

I've enjoyed some lovely books recently. Sometimes it seems like my book choices are rather mundane, enjoyable but not memorable, and then I choose others whose characters and story lines I turn over and over in my mind. 

The Enchanted April

A comforting re-read. Who wouldn't love to escape to Italy for a 

month in the sun and find one's self transformed?

The Comfort of Crows

Margaret Renkl

Essays on ageing, gardening, the wild natural world. Renkl writes
"The world will always be beautiful to those who look for beauty. Throats will always catch when the fleeing clouds part fleetingly and the golden moon flashes into existence and then winks out again."

A Killer in King's Cove

Iona Wishaw

A new-to-me writer with a number of books I'm looking forward to reading featuring Lane Winslow, a young British woman who moves to rural Canada shortly after WWII and becomes embroiled in solving murders. 

Go out, go out I beg of you

and taste the beauty of the wild.

Behold the miracle of the earth

with all the wonder of a child.

Edna Jaques

Apple blossoms are the prettiest things. I look down on them every morning from my bedroom window. Last year we had very few apples and I'm hoping this year will produce more of them. 

These days are full of many things, but not overly busy. Every day I go out to inspect my garden, to see what's coming into bloom and what's finished. Lettuce, spinach, and peas are growing nicely in the potager. Tomato plants are thriving in the greenhouse. It's simply a wonderful time of year. 

Sending wishes for a beautiful weekend.