update, such as it is

I actually do have more garden pictures but they are still on the camera & i don't have the energy to take them off & all. So that does not speak well of my mental state, i suppose. The garden is very pretty this year. Maybe i can try to get those pics up here....

It is finals week here, so at least the end of the semester is in sight. Dh & i have been fighting, about the same issues as for the last 16 years...seems like some things never change. My mother's situation has changed -- her eyesight is now very bad (glaucoma) and it is not clear how much longer she will be able to live alone. I am going to visit her at the end of next week & try to clarify how we can plan to proceed.

Anyway, sorry for the lackluster. The thing with my mother could end up being rather a mess so i have a bit on my mind.

well, finally we have a little real spring.

Today it was actually beautiful weather. We are supposed to have several more days of it, too. So finally i am getting a little bloom, not much yet but something anyway.

These are the early tulips in Nicolas' garden. They were actually fully opened today but by the time i got out there to take a pic, they had closed.

Finally figured out the name of this blue stuff, it is Glory-of-the-snow, or Chionodoxa. These came with the house. There is actually a white variety, i will be looking for that to plant for next year. I had thought that it must be quite invasive, because several houses around here have it all through the lawns. But my clump hasn't gotten any larger in the last 5 years, so i guess not. Maybe the ones i see have been like that for 50-odd years, who knows?



Finally some daffodils have opened. This is 'Ice Follies'.
h
Tulip 'Johann Strauss', the same as in the previous post. They close for the evening.



a peony leafs out


My first volunteer -- a johnny-jump up! In the "lawn". I have to do something about that "lawn".

garden pics

Well, i finally got out into the garden today -- cleaned out a bit, pruned the roses & boxwoods, took some pictures. Not much is blooming -- it is a lull in Nicolas' garden. I have been trying to fix this lull for the last few years to no avail. Usually at least the daffodils will have started by now, but i didn't even see any buds.

OK, i shouldn't say nothing is blooming. Technically, his tree is blooming-- you can see the pussy willows are all covered with pollen, and bees. There are so many bees this year, it is amazing! I am very glad to see them all, perhaps this colony collapse disorder that they have been talking about has stopped.

This is one of the white bleeding heart plants i put in last year. There is something so pretty about the vivid green of the new foliage.
Peony is starting to come up.
There are a few things blooming in the other gardens, though. Here is the hellebore, blooming for Lent as advertised.
It seems a lot darker this year, than in years past. Also, 3 of its seedlings have survived and are blooming-size, though it looks like they will not bloom this year. I am going to move them around when i redo the gardens.

First tulips -- Johann Strauss as usual. I have many fewer this year, i blame the damned squirrels. I had planted some new, white Kaufmannia tulips in Nicolas' garden & you can see the buds but they aren't up yet. Maybe soon?

I uncovered this Epimedium by mistake, and then covered it back up again. It is a beautiful color...we ought not see that one fora few weeks, i think.

Well, not the best selection of photos but at least it is something. I am hoping there will be more soon.

In honor of the new espresso machine

I made a coffee cup dishcloth. The pattern is here.

more snow

OK, it's not a lot -- it did snow all day yesterday but the ground is warm so only an inch or so accumulated.  It's still there.  None of my tulips or daffodils were even open yet so nothing got frozen. But still it is depressing, i mean geez.  We had such nice weather last week & then this....

so that's why there are no garden pictures.  Really, it is pathetic.  

In good news, dh bought an espresso machine so we now have GOOD COFFEE!  Well, relatively good, that is -- it takes a while to calibrate everything, right now we are getting coffee of some uneven quality...but all much better than the drip stuff.   Perhaps with all this coffee available, i will be posting more...

postscript

The dh's club had a "ladies' night" again, and i was, ahem, strongly encouraged to go.  After  last time, i didn't really want to, but heck. We do many things in the name of household harmony, eh?

I didn't see the fellow from last time who said he had 'two who survived' (children, that is).  I also didn't see Chem Gal.  Turns out, those twins she was gushing about arrived rather early  -- a few days ago in fact, and she was in Boston with her daughter.  'They were 8 weeks early', said Chem Guy.

'How many weeks are they?' i asked.

'I don't know, how many weeks is full term?'

'Well, 40 weeks is generally full term, but they say that 37 weeks is full term for twins.   So was it 40-8 or 37-8?  Because it makes a difference...'

'Uh, i don't know, the second one i think.'

Okay...

'They're like 3 pounds each, i think.'

'Oh, that's very good!', i say.   You know me, always upbeat...heh heh

Then he went off into this thing about how the daughter was a high-powered executive before the babies were born & she thought she was going to continue to be that high-powered executive after they got here & blah blah blah....

(and i'm like, WTF, high powered or not, do you think it was EASY for her to GET those IVF babies in the first place & then be on bedrest for however many weeks with them & now they are in NICU & thank GOD they are doing well??????)

and then some other old guy chimed in with "well, they won't be home for a few weeks right?  So she can get some rest in the mean time..."

And i said, very cheerfully mind you,  "i really don't think it is very restful to have two infants in the NICU."  No spitting or clenched teeth were  involved, you would be proud of me.

And even Chem-Guy-who-is-in-space backed me up on this one....with a story of how far away they live from the hospital & blah blah blah.

Then of course the conversation changed slightly to how long said infants would be in the hospital.  Heh, i know that answer...but i am just a lowly mathematician, so i defer to the experts. 

'Well, George knows all about this, he was the head of all that stuff  at XYZ hospital for years. George, how big does a baby have to be before you send them home?'

'5 pounds', said George, who then went on some completely irrelevant story about some pediatrician and some baby and blah blah blah never even mind....

In any case, my conclusion after this postscript is that i am not going to go to any men's clubs any more.  Ladies' night, free drinks, free dinner...whatever, forget it, it's not worth it. I have a headache.