The Other Peony

Here's our third peony, which has finally opened to join the other two. Looking pretty good, I'd say! This is the bud that hosted the aphid farm, which apparently didn't do it any harm. You can still see a few aphids and ants on that lower right petal.

A peaceful Monday morning here. Olga is snoring next to me and the sky is bright and beautiful, though there's supposedly an 80 percent chance of showers later today. We need some rain. Yesterday I schlepped another two gallons of water down to our pathetic street tree in my watering can, and spent some time watering the garden. Everything seems very dry.

I hopefully made the Russians happy by trimming the greenery beside our front steps and tying back the valerian so it doesn't lean out quite as far. It's not quite as pretty now, with loops of twine around it. We look like gardeners in thrall to bondage -- and I assure you that is not my thing. But we all gotta live together, right?

I also trimmed "the monster," the next-door neighbor's rose that hovers over our patio. It's still ridiculously huge, but I didn't want to cut into the bulk of the bush because I was afraid there might be birds nesting inside it. Instead I just shaped it a bit, cutting off the shoots jutting out of the surface. When we get into summer I'll cut it back more thoroughly.

Yesterday afternoon I went to Dave's high school spring concert. (I'm trying to remember whether I went to any of his concerts last year. I think they did have one, whereas in 2020, of course, all concerts were cancelled.) Anyway, it went well and the drummers, in particular, did a great job. Dave has a good percussion section this year. Afterward the band teachers and spouses all went out for dinner at an expensive restaurant with mediocre food but, fortunately, good gin & tonics.

And now, back to work!