A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!*

Since we'd spent the past few weekends playing, this was mostly a catch up around the house sort of weekend. The mess was taking over, and I hate the house being in such a state that I'd be embarrassed to have surprise guests. So, Saturday, I cleaned. Spouse spent the day avoiding my whirling, sneeze-inducing vacuum and duster and cleaned the barn instead. Sometimes (rarely) it feels good to be productive, even though I despise wasting a perfectly good weekend day on chores.

The sunshine on Sunday was blissfully lovely, despite a little nip in the air. I could not spend another day indoors, so spent some time trying to reclaim the perennial gardens from the weeds. I think, pound for pound, there may have been more weed than plant in the gardens. They look so happy and neat now with all those strangling, nutrient-stealing weeds gone.

Ah, how I love gardens. Here are a few glimpses of my garden afternoon.

As usual, I started out with Tucker trying to climb my leg for attention. Ow, darn it. He's pointy. And insistent, the little booger.

The peonies have buds! Hooray! I love peonies, and pretty much count down the days until I'll have those big blowsy blossoms in my garden and can cut bouquets for my dining room.

The critters were enjoying them even with just buds.

The lilies (I can't remember the name of the variety) are thriving and multiplying. I love the patterns of the leaves in the sunlight:

The bleeding hearts are taking over. I love bleeding hearts in part because they are easy. These started out as the scraggliest, most pathetic little scraps of plants two years ago. I "rescued" them from a local garden store because I felt sorry for them. They are now each probably about 5 feet in diameter, and positively covered in their funky flowers.

The astilbe that we nabbed from my boss's garden last summer was also absolutely pathetic last year - only a few scraggly spiky leaves - and I wasn't sure they'd return at all. Yet it's doing amazingly well, and is rapidly providing some lovely ground cover.

I don't know why my plants are so happy - they're woefully neglected more often than not. All the poop from the neighborhood stray cats must be extraordinarily effective fertilizer. Do you think my adoration provides extra nourishment?

Garden time makes me mellow, especially on sunny days because sunshine makes everything happy. My husband says I picked the wrong part of the country to live in if I love sunshine so much, but I think the dearth of sunshine is what makes me appreciate it so much.

Wednesday, although stuck inside, made the most of the nice afternoon too.