Easter Just Flew By

It seemed like Easter came early this year, without a lot of warning, and left just as quickly. Kind of like the flowers in our garden. I have an album of photos I took just before Palm Sunday and all of those flowers, except the pansies, have dropped their petals now. A week ago there were no buds on the oak tree, and today the asphalt driveway is covered with so much yellow pollen it looks green! These daffodils and grape hyacinths greeted us on Easter. Blue and yellow is one of my favorite color combinations in the garden.

I set the dining table for four although it looked like we would have only ourselves here for Easter dinner. Then a day or two before, our friends Mike and Sandy found themselves free, so we did a joint feast and had a wonderful time. I keep Easter chicks and rabbits that are handmade and use them over every year, in a traditional basket. We used to dye hard-boiled eggs as well, but this year, with Norm's outpatient procedure on the Thursday before, we just didn't have time. (Norm is just fine, not to worry.) Norm observes that I seem to really enjoy my Easter rituals, and that's true. It is a holiday I remember being celebrated with my grandparents...my grandfather hiding eggs in tufts of grass in the yard for me to find; getting dressed up for church although it was cold and I had to put a coat over my spring dress; eating deviled eggs and potato salad with either ham or fried chicken, and a dessert of strawberry shortcake. We did have Florida strawberries, and the lemon jello cake that Sandy made. Yum. The place mats are Norm's craft--he has been weaving on a lap loom this winter and these are the marvelous result. They didn't start out to be place mats, but I kidnapped them.

It got to almost 80 degrees on Easter, which was a little too warm, but some warmth is welcome after a March that was cooler than average. This is the first spring for bulbs in the planter by the new wall out front. This area is still emerging and I will have more pictures soon. We planted the pansies and violas on March 31 and they were promptly joined by that many more that had over- wintered or re- seeded from last year. On the day we planted, we were not too sure where all of the hostas were, because they hadn't emerged. Two days later, they were obvious!

Grape Hyacinths, it turns out, are some of Norm's favorites. We bought a mixture of dark and light blue and white. Looks like the middle tones are missing here, but they may come up in a day or two. We thought they would do well next to the rock wall that Matt built, and they have.

Last summer we planted some perennial pinks out back by the driveway and enjoyed their cheerful flowers. Well, the hardy little souls survived the winter, even having a big mound of snow from the driveway dumped on them a couple of times. On April 1, a blossom had already opened. Guess I won't have to look for anything for that spot this year!

I am always trying to push my camera farther than it can really go, but I had to try to capture these emerging hosta blades with drops of moisture still clinging to them from a rain we had the night before. I love being retired because that means (usually) that I can take a few extra minutes to just prowl around the yard and look for something different to photograph. (You can try clicking on the photo to enlarge it.)

A tour of the spring garden is in many ways like a visit from old friends. I have no idea how long this purple hyacinth has been in the perennial border out back that Bob and Lois planted many years ago. I've planted other colors of hyacinths out front and they last a couple of years at most. But Old Purple is the Old Faithful of the plant world. Glad to see you again!


These jonquils are the ones I mentioned in an earlier post, that we trans- planted from my parents' yard in Tulsa over 20 years ago. (My dad was there to supervise the digging, and he died in '89, so.....) We had a big stand of them at our Ferguson house and we dug some bulbs for our move to Bel Nor in 2001. They are among the last to bloom, but I find it cheering and comforting to see them brightening their corner near the raspberry patch. Like the Easter story, they offer a hint of the everlasting while recalling some of the best memories of yesterday.