Painting the springtime bridge

This weekend I started the gardening and lawn care work. Nothing serious. Just raking. I'm starting to reach the stage where I wonder what I really get out of doing the same thing over and over again? It used to be I'd get a bit of satisfaction from vacuuming the house on Saturday and emptying the bagless filter. I could see the product of my work: lots of compressed dust and dog hair. My victory against the unseen germs! But now I take it out and wonder what's the difference? The dust and dog hair will be back by next Saturday. Who will ever know I've been here if all I do is vacuum and, in this case, rake? Nobody ever comes over to see it anyway.

No matter how nice the gardens end up looking -- or not -- it'll all be covered by snow again next year.

So this is always a good time to head to one of my favorite spots: the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on the other side of the Twin Cities. If ever decide that my ashes shouldn't be scattered around Home Depot, the Arboretum would be my backup.

It was sunny and quite warm today so Carolie headed over, anxious to do a little birdwatching. But by the time we got there, rain and thunder had moved in, so we walked around in the rain, not quite as smart, I guess as the birds, who headed for cover and silence.

The flowers and shrubs there are a little ahead of me. My forsythia bushes are in full blossom, theirs are past. Their daffodils are out, mine are barely up.

I like theirs better. As always, click the image for a bigger view.


We found this guy -- or maybe it's a woman flower, I forget -- around some ground cover. We have no clue what it is, but it's cool.



Every year, the Arboretum has a "theme" of color throughout the zillions of acres. Last year I think it was reds and oranges, the year before that red, white, & blue. This year it's whites and yellows.

We're going to go back in a few weeks. By then, hundreds of Lady Slippers should be out.

I also like the Arboretum because of all the benches around the property. I love benches. I thought it would be cool to get one to honor my mother and father. But today I found out you can do that -- for $10,000. I don't like benches that much.