Star Magnolia

This is a single flower of my star magnolia from about a month ago. Its a nice little tree that blooms faithfully for me every year with little care. It is next to the green hedge and to the strip of green grass, fronted by iris and then the stone path that encircles a small rockery. This corner of my garden needs work. The iris should be divided and the soil improved. The stone circle rockery is slowly coming along.

In the vegetable garden, I have planted 3 rows of peas, a row of sunflowers, some dill, a row of beets, a row of radishes and a row of buttercrunch lettuce. This seed is really rather old. I am not expecting great things this year. I really should invest in new seeds every year. Old habits die hard... must not waste things. There is room for a few more things on the strawberry patch side of the garden... maybe tomatoes when we get back. And I have left the spinach growning. I should get a row of swiss chard going again. That stuff is sooooo good in the spring. The strawberries are blooming.

I filled the pond and skimmed off some of the debris from the plum tree. I need to weed the violets back to under the deck and clean up the gravel dry river. Otherwise this area looks pretty good, and the moss is spreading, nicely. I shall try to keep it watered this summer.

I made a strawberry and rhubard pie two days ago.. frozen strawberries, but they actually have some flavor. I should pick and freeze the rest of the rhubarb... maybe tomorrow.

One of our water pipes sprang a leak last nite about midnight. Pat turned off the hot water at the water heater after consulting with a 24 hour plumber. We cleaned up the mess and went to sleep. Today the plumber came, fixed the leak, and had the Sani Tech guy come in to spray for mold and put on his drying machines. Pat phoned the insurance people and spoke to an Adjuster. So, we will probably have new floor covering, and new drywall in the laundry room and the closet under the stairs. It seems we also have termites. The Sani-tech guy is going be arranging the workers and all of it will go to the insurance company to see how much of the end cost they will cover. The plumber's costs were not covered by insurance. I don't understand that, but everyone else seems to. So, I will be happy to have new floor covering. I have detested the lino that is down there, from the day we moved in... 20 years ago. oh my!