Another week.....................

 Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.  ~Lou Erickson

 

The weather has been cool and almost wintry again. We have spent some time digging and preparing a vegetable garden which is now ready for planting. We have a selection of seeds ready and must get 'sowing' of a different kind this weekend!

The birds have discovered the new restaurant and if anything we seem to have more birds visiting here than we did in our previous house, including another shy and elusive woodpecker. The robins have hatched their nestlings and I was thrilled to see a fluffy baby sitting on the water bowl being feed by its mother. The robins have been nesting in a large shrub right next to the conservatory window and are extremely tame. They love our gardening exploits and immediately fly down and find worms in the turned over soil.

The spring flowers are fading, my late planted daffodils are still flowering but the bright red tulips are shedding their petals. My precious peonies have buds, don't know how long it will be before they actually open. Not sure quite what these peonies will look like, bought them from a flower seller at the farmers market in December. My second planting of peonies seem to be taking forever to appear, perhaps the cooler weather has affected their growth.

I picked some of the lilac for a vase in the house, only lasts for a couple of days and the sweet fragrance can be rather heavy but it looks so beautiful.

I need to spend some time going through boxes in the garage as I would like to find all my books and also to re-organise the many boxes of bear making supplies. 

Bears are going slowly, Megan reminded me that we have only some three weeks before the show in Stratford. It will mean some hard work for the next few weeks as we are still trying to cope with long overdue commissions. I have also actually found time to update our web page with some new bears. I have not made a 'clown' for some time so Joachim is something different for a change, I loved the sea green colour and found exactly the right shade of Hannah silk ribbon for trimming.

 

A busy time ahead and I need to get back to work. Have a wonderful restful weekend.......

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.  ~Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871