Vernal Venture

Our cold, wet weather and my continuing obsession with genealogy research and Blipfoto meant I'd been avoiding doing any work in the garden for... well, let's just say "a considerable time."

But now I've broken through my block, because our friend E came over this afternoon to do some pruning on the two Japanese maples in the front yard, a much-needed service we were the wining bidders on at a silent auction some months ago. She is brilliant at pruning, knowing just where and what to cut to make our trees look much better.

After E left, I picked up all the branches she'd removed and pulled out a goodly number to try forcing inside. I also did a bit of pruning myself on some overgrown plants, including the Kerria japonica (Japanese rose) that soon will burst forth with bright yellow blossoms.

After the enjoyable challenge of arranging my motley collection of trimmings in a few vases, I faced the greater challenge of doing an indoor blip on a dark, overcast day. I turned on all of the kitchen lights, including a small one on the bookshelf where I placed the vase of Kerria japonica branches, and hoped for the best.

It's a good thing that I got out today -- I just looked at the weather forecast (5pm my time) and was surprised to see that we may well have snow tonight and tomorrow, with an accumulation of several inches possible!