Boring Stuff but the Garden is Pretty

Here's the garden at the moment. The roses are blooming, as is the yellow peony, orange azalea and pink campion. The forget-me-nots have passed their peak, and the grass is deliberately shaggy because of "No-Mow May," which is supposed to help insects by allowing them to breed in the unmown grass. I'll mow the front section of the lawn come June, but the back we'll leave alone all summer.

The large leaves of the burdock -- which grew from seed from the plants we had a couple of years ago -- are perfect baskets for fallen azaleas and rose petals.

Here's an interesting discovery. We lost a couple of lupines a year or two ago, and I have long believed that our red Beefeater lupine died and the pink-and-white Rachel de Thame survived. This flower is showing me that I have it exactly backwards -- the Beefeater is the survivor. It would be nice if I could remember what plant is in what pot! Perhaps I should use labels like they do on "Gardener's World."

Yesterday I went out and bought some annuals -- petunias and trailing verbena -- and planted them in hanging baskets for the front porch and back patio. The foxgloves are starting to bloom too. My dahlias are still in a sorry state because of snails, slugs, birds and squirrels -- if we don't start getting some sunnier weather, keeping the snails and slugs at bay, I'm afraid some of them won't successfully sprout at all. As I've said, I'm letting nature take its course.

I also did laundry and read about a third of a novel called "Mr. Nobody" by Catherine Steadman. Dave got a membership to a sort of book club, a gift from a parent, and he doesn't really read for fun so I signed up for it. They choose and send a new book every now and then, based on my stated preferences. I asked for mystery thrillers, basically, and I would never have thought to buy "Mr. Nobody" but I'm enjoying it so far.

The Russians knocked on the door around lunchtime, wanting access to the alley at the side of the house (which is behind a locked gate leading to our garden). They had a new window installed on Friday and Mr. Russia wanted to paint around the frame. I opened the gate, figuring he'd be up on that ladder an hour or so. FOUR HOURS LATER he was still there, and he says he'll have to come back today. I think he's finding all sorts of flaws with the work and you know what a perfectionist he is.

I cut this gigantic rose from the garden. I think it's a Princess Margaret. It smells amazing!

Oh -- I forgot to tell you how inventory worked out in the Lower School library. I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats! After I finished scanning everything on Friday, I went back to try to find the missing books, and I found several of them on the second pass. (Often they've slipped behind the others or they're super-skinny and I just didn't see them the first time.) Ultimately we wound up with 47 missing books, which isn't too terrible out of almost 18,000 -- and I suspect some of those will come back.

So inventory in both libraries is officially done until next spring.

Olga has found a way to simultaneously sit up and lie down. Skills!