Teasels and a Muddy Snout

Apparently we're having the hottest April in 361 years -- our glorious recent weather has actually been warmer than Crete and Ibiza! It's also one of the driest Aprils on record. We've been watering in the garden almost every day. Fortunately I'm seeing forecasts that call for rain around the beginning of May, so that will be welcome.

Dave and I bought a new patio table to replace the sagging, rotting specimen out there now. The old one was here when we moved into the flat, so I sent a note to the landlords telling them we intend to discard it. They wrote back saying it isn't their table; apparently it was purchased by a former tenant. So we're in the clear to throw it out. The new one is smaller and round, and hopefully slightly more mobile so we can take it out to the lawn and bring it in over winter.

I've been debating whether to stain it, like I did our other outdoor furniture. I haven't decided.

In other news, Dave and I got our coronavirus stimulus payments from Uncle Sam. So that's a welcome development. (It will more than pay for the table!) I wasn't sure we'd even get one, living overseas, but since we're citizens and we file taxes I guess we qualify. Woo hoo!

As usual, yesterday involved more reading and walking the dog. Olga and I finished our cemetery walk just as it was closing at 4 p.m. I had no idea it closed so early these days -- apparently it's a coronavirus schedule. There must have been about 80 people at Fortune Green when we walked through, lounging on blankets, having ice cream on the benches, playing football. Little kids were riding bikes and scooters. I did my best to steer clear of everyone.

I also made a quick shopping trip for some essentials -- ice cream, peppercorns and white wine!

In the garden, I planted the teasel seedlings I rescued from last year's pods. We have seven of them, including three in one pot that somehow all got planted together. (The pottery shards guard against digging squirrels.)

We also have these three teasels that grew up in the lawn all on their own. I'm going to let them mature, even though they're in kind of a funny place right in the middle of the grass. We have a few others that took root on their own in the flower beds. Goldfinches love teasels, and I like the flowers, but we're obviously going to have to monitor this situation or we may be taken over! (Sort of like the ragwort, which we allow to grow for the caterpillars, but that stuff reproduces like crazy so we have to keep it in check.)

Here's Olga at the cemetery. She dropped her Kong in a deep mud puddle underneath a water spigot and blackened her snout trying to retrieve it! As usual, all the dirt vanished on its own by the time we got home. She really does seem to have Teflon fur.

(Top photo: This building around the corner has been under renovation all six years we've lived here. Here it is in 2014 -- looks better now, but what's taking so long?)