Sawflies and Dog Bums

This is our Philadelphus, or mock orange, which is blooming in profusion and really does smell like orange blossoms. The scent takes me right back to my Florida childhood. Unfortunately the blooms are already beginning to fade and the garden is carpeted with white petals, swirling like snow flurries with every gust of wind.

Those of you who predicted I would not do "absolutely nothing" yesterday, as I vowed, were correct. I managed to find a few things to keep me busy. One was transplanting and dividing an Astrantia that was buried deep in our rock garden and looking terrible. It turned out to be ridiculously root-bound in its little rock "pot" and now it's planted in a place where it can run free. (Well, half of it is -- the other half is in another pot.)

Anyway, no pictures of that because it looks terrible right now.

These little devils are back -- the larvae of the Solomon's seal sawfly, which are devouring our Solomon's seal plants. In past years I've picked them off and killed them to protect the leaves, but I recently read that the plants don't really suffer and as both the plants and the insects are native to the UK, the caterpillars should be tolerated as part of the natural environment. (They do have natural predators, like birds and wasps.) So this year I've been letting some of them hang around and do their thing.

In the afternoon I took Olga to the cemetery, and here's a video so you can tag along:

You'll see her rather lethargically chase some pigeons on West End Green, sniff along one of the cemetery paths past all the long grass and blooming roses, and you'll see a bee on some vetch in the cemetery's butterfly meadow. Finally, you'll see Olga get a post-walk treat in our kitchen -- I love the little hopping dance she does when she's excited. (It's a subtle hop -- don't expect anything too dramatic!)

A couple of times walking with Olga I've run into some neighbors from across the street -- let's call them M and S. They have a new staffy puppy which is very cute, but these two seem like the helicopter parents of the puppy world. The first time I saw them M asked whether Olga was friendly and vaccinated, and I said yes on both counts. She then explained that they were trying to accustom their dog to others, and would it be OK if she "presented" the puppy's bum for Olga to sniff? Bemused, I said "sure," and she held the puppy out back-end first, and Olga dutifully sniffed. The same thing would have happened if the puppy and Olga simply walked up to each other with no "presenting" involved, but whatever.

Anyway, yesterday I saw them again, and as we chatted M pointed to Olga's hind end and said, "Is she about to make a poo or is that just her bum?" Nothing looked out of the ordinary to me, so I said, "That's just her bum. She always looks like that." And S said, "She's an old lady!"

I was offended on Olga's behalf!