A Good Days' Gardening

Maggie the Cat having a drink. My husband calls this

"Here birdy birdy!"

This past weekend was warm and sunny in northern New Hampshire. My husband and I spent most of it gardening. It was a pleasure to get down in the dirt and dig. He even enjoyed mowing the lawn, not something he normally likes to do; but after the long winter, slow-to-start Spring and our trip to Kentucky where it was bluegrass and flowers all the way, we can't wait to get out in the yard.

My pansies are in so the photo I posted longingly last month is applicable now. Soon, I'll have flowering phlox, peonies, lilacs and candytuft. I have to buy more annuals to mix with the perennials. The photo above is my cat drinking out of the birdbath. It's hilarious. She looks wicked.

The bug aren't biting just yet. In northern New England, we have black flies. They bite. Before I lived here full time, I thought they were a myth...like snipe. I honestly thought they were something New Englanders made up to keep out the flatlanders. Wishful thinking. They are small, they buzz and they love to attack just behind your ears and on your neck near the carotid artery. They draw blood and leave a nasty, itchy boil full of ooze that leaks when you scratch.

As if if that weren't enough to drive you crazy, we have unbelievable mosquitoes. Southerners love to brag about their mosquitoes which are larger in size. But ours are meaner. They leave huge itchy raised welts that can last two weeks. The more you itch, the more skin you lose. It's gross. I hate them. I cannot sleep in a room when there's a mosquito present. I sit up in bed, turn on the light, grab something to use as a swatter and wait. It drives my husband berserk. But I just cannot sleep until the damn thing is dead. They buzz your head and you know you are going to wake up with bites all over. Ugh.

Did I mention the ticks? Ah, well, I'll save that for another time...