Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.  ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
 

There is no delicate way to put this ... April just turned out to be an utterly crappy month in the garden this year.   Its really been too wet to get the tiller into the garden .. and boy I was right that this will not be a year for early planting.

But .. the beauty of perennials is that rain or shine they keep ticking over :)

But no matter how chilly it is, the forsythia always is a bright spot of color ... in this pic hiding behind the currant bushes.

The Lydia Tree is shooting up ... all willows love the cool damp weather, eh?   In the foreground there is a lovely Mountain Ash which is also waiting for warmer days to wake up :)

Without a doubt, wormwood has to be one of the sturdiest herbs ... seeing as it stands up to the roughhousing of the dogs in their play yard.   In another few weeks .. it will be tall enough for even my biggest dog to play hide and seek in.

Its still chilly days for sure .... we are not sure, but we think little Andy is fifteen now and the fact that he still prefers to have his yard parka on when we go out pretty much says it all about this years spring :)

Hmmm ... I wonder why the vegie garden is on the OTHER side of the play yard fence :)

Chilly afternoon when there is ice fog on the ornamental pond

But things are still coming back to life under the water.   The pond was a LOT of work to build, but it has naturalized to a self sustaining little system that only requires the occasional top of of water in the dryer weather.  Dollar for dollar, I don't think I have ever had better return than with the hardy water lilies.   Once they start blooming, they will faithfully keep up for the season until the really hard frosts come in October.

This is just one of the many aerial visitors we get here ... more so now than when I first moved out here.   There are nesting bald eagles up on the ridge where we go hiking every day, Golden Eagles living somewhere in the woods behind on the mountain, Red tailed hawks nesting to the east of us along with the Chicken Hawks which are so much harder on the little songbirds than any cat could dream of being.   

No point in getting upset at the eagles for being raptors ... to them a rabbit is a cat is a small dog ... its up to us to keep our small pets safe. 

So for now the three amigos just enjoy the fun of being out in their play yard.  No point in getting upset about a late spring.   Like the eagles ... weather just is what it is and wishing will not ( and should not) change that.