Here Come The Peonies!

"People pull up in cars, get out, stand and stare. Nothing need be said. We all understand the visual nourishment we share.

--Diane Ackerman, Cultivating Delight

I'm in a frenzy nowadays. Everything is popping, blooming, exploding in color. Daffodils going crazy, redbuds laden with pink buds (did you know you can eat them?), tulip magnolias unbelievable -- I have to order one --, tulips of all colors opening up, forsythia, japonica, azaleas -- Mother Nature sounded the horn and the world is waking up! I have been fortunate to be home for the last two days and do little else than work in the garden (while 4 boys were having a playdate all over the back yard). I have planted (2 nursery trips in the last 2 days...), transferred, divided, planned, cleared, inspected new things coming up. Here come the peonies!

If you haven't read any Diane Ackerman (see quote above) then rush theeself to find something of hers. She is an anthropologist, sociologist, poet. She has the most beautiful way of expressing words I've ever known. She wrote a great book, Cultivating Delight, that is sort of my gardening Bible. She describes her garden and the different critters in it, in detail, over the course of a year. I have read it several times and leave it near a reading chair, where I pick it up when I have a few minutes to indulge myself. She's written a lot of other great books also.