Odds and ends

The daffodils are coming up on the hill (not at the rectory) in all their glory — I have planted a good 300 bulbs over the years of a dozen or so varieties and so I love this time of year when I can go out and pick them. Here's a modest sampling of some (the crop isn't as good as other years).

So I took the day off, even though I come to God in prayer with the people on my heart.

After half putting in the garden up at the rectory (I cannot put in the herbs, tomatoes or peppers until after Memorial Day and post frost peril), I can down here to plant three Acapulco (orange) roses. The grafts are three years old and are supposedly hardy. Digging here is always an adventure because it involves lots of rocks.

Then it was more yanking out of blackberry bushes and digging them up. This is so I can put in some asparagus. There's lots of asparagus at the rectory and actually I have picked the first spears.

The funny part came toward the end of the day: I'd already gone in but Compa was still outside. She said she heard some snuffing noise, didn't quite realise what it was until the neighbour's pigs came trotting up the driveway. They are quite big brown pigs (I will get a photo tomorrow) and they regularly escape from the barn because our neighbour in all his intelligence (!) never put a door on it. Why the porcine pair didn't freeze to death this winter, we will never know. Anyway, the pigs wandered up the driveway/road but didn't find whatever they were after so they came cruising back down, snorfled in the dirt, rooting for whatever, right where I had planted some monks hood, and then came running across the driveway. Compa shooed them away with the rake (wanting to protect the daffies and the roses I'd planted)but as they continued on their way, one of them headed the tulip — nipped the whole thing off, our only tulip — munched a little on it and then left it in its wake. Oh well.

Meanwhile, my sister wrote that her cat, another orange tabby, had his first mast cell tumour at age 3, was given a poor prognosis but lived to 18 1/2. That's right. He also spent a lot of time in Elizabethan collars, and on prednisone. Ay, ay, ay. I will know more next Tuesday.

Lastly, prayers. Prayers for the people of China, Burma.... the numbers are inconceivable.

Prayers for Kirstin as she has her operation tomorrow.
Prayers for Naomi who may get out of the hospital tomorrow IF they can find a good pain management regimen.
Prayers for Louise, who missed a step on some outside granite stairs, fell and landed on her face.

So many prayers.

This post is intentionally light because there is so much heaviness out there.