Build Me Up Buttercup

Another day of spectacular sunny weather. I spent the morning walking to Homebase and then working in the garden. I bought a big bag of compost, a new flowerpot, and a tray of pansies for some hanging baskets. While in the garden center I saw a bunch of plants on a shelf including some lilies that had been tipped out of their now-absent pot and were lying, rootball exposed, like a patient in a hospital. Of course I thought: "I can save those!" I took them to the cashier and asked how much they were, and she gave them to me -- so I brought those home too.

I repotted our Amistad sage, which is looking spindly after its winter by the back door, and three honesty plants that were in a too-small pot. (The root ball was so tight I had to run a knife around the edge and then get Dave to hold the pot while I pushed the roots through the drainage holes to get it out.) Then I potted up the free lilies and two baskets of pansies, and put one by the back door and one by the front. Now everything seems happy. It will be interesting to see what color these lilies are. I haven't the faintest idea what to expect.

I also planted some corncockle and hollyhock seeds.

Speaking of seedlings, I'm noticing that some of my foxgloves are being eaten, I think by slugs. This surprises me because foxgloves are toxic, at least to humans -- they can alter the heartbeat. (They're the source of the heart medication digitalis.) I always thought them relatively impervious to pests, but then, maybe slugs don't have hearts?

(Actually, they do! Or snails do, anyway, so presumably slugs as well. The things you learn from blogging...)

Olga and I went to the cemetery around lunchtime. I'd planned to take her to the Heath, but she obstinately turned for the cemetery and would consider no other option. We didn't hear the turaco today but we heard it last weekend, so I guess it's around for another summer.

On Saturday, when we were taking our morning walk under that blue sky, we passed a guy working on a brick wall in front of a house. He had a portable radio sitting next to him, exuberantly blasting the old '60s song "Build Me Up Buttercup," and it was such a retro experience -- I suddenly felt like I'd time-warped back to a sunny Saturday morning in 1968. That song has been stuck in my brain ever since, the theme to this bright, relatively warm weekend ushering in a new spring.

Olga marked the seasonal change with a mud-bath -- you can't tell from this photo, but she'd just been lying in that puddle (as well as drinking it) and her undercarriage is coated as thoroughly as someone getting a spa treatment. Needless to say, a bath was in order when we got home.