May Day*
'Tis rapidly approaching the time of year when the golden glory of the daffodils finally dies down. Gardeners who care, or who don't have too many, will be going round deadheading, maybe feeding, but leaving the leaves strictly alone for at least the next six weeks so that they can feed up the bulbs for next year. Yes, there will be areas of slightly unsightly tangles of dying back leaves and ever lengthening grass, but so what? The really unsightly bit will come in June when the grass can finally be cut - leaving pallid patches where the daffodils had been. Not pretty, but there you are. If gardeners wanted to extend the season of interest in the daffodil patches I suppose they could have plug planted primroses and cowslips or something which might yield a wildflower meadow effect. Then that could be scythed off once the wildflowers had set seeds - some time in July/August.
Anyhew, tulips are due, in all their multiformed glories, from the tiny species tulips to the upright waterlily forms and into the riotous ruffles of parrot tulips. But it's gotten cool this week, so the tulips are a little less willing to come out, for all the forget-me-nots are in bloom. The tulips in our yard have only put forth leaves. Well, some put forth buds which withered. It was really warm for several weeks, that probably had something to do with it. That and the fact that tulips really like well-drained, full-sun - neither of which really could be applied to our back yard!
Meanwhile in the shrub and tree world magnolias are delighting the eye, also Camellias as are the various species of Prunus - notably the flowering cherry. All of which is very lovely and very welcome, even if the past couple of days wind and rain have somewhat spoiled the spectacle.
In case you weren't woken by a choir perched high in the local church tower, or a jingle** of Morris Dancers, today is May Day, Dear Reader. The First day of Summer if you look at some calendars. Should you look out of your window you'll realise that 'summer' is yet to come in. April was very nice and go-down-the-beach-ish for quite a while. May, to start with at least, is going to be more go-for-a-run-and-back-for-hot-chocolate. Being British we will take this in our collective strides - pausing only, perhaps, to pull on another pair of woolly socks. Other people have climates. Far too many people are suffering with Climate Change. We have weather.
Her Majesty has an 'official' birthday which she celebrates in early June with a parade - Trooping the Colour. By having it in early June it was thought that the weather for the parade might be good. Anyone who's experienced a few early Junes in the UK will know that it can be Really Nice, or it could just snow. Such is the joy of having 'weather'!
And Finally - when is a crash not a crash? When it is 'lithobraking'! The Messenger space craft which has been investigating the planet Mercury for a while finally stopped last night. It was programmed to crash into the planet, why I do not know, and is thought to have done so as no further signals have been recieved. Messenger had orbited Mercury for four years, sending back data, but had finally run out of fuel. In the best tradition of coming up with acronyms and different words, those who sent the probe decided to stop it. Dead. Or rather, by 'lithobraking', ie: running it into a Very Large Stone! What is it with men and crashes? Or women and crashes for that matter?
*Not to be confused with 'Mayday!' which used to be an international distress call, it may still be.
**The collective noun for Morris Dancers is a 'side' - comprising six or eight dancers, a musician or three and a bag(wo)man who goes round 'with the hat'. There may occasionally even be a 'fool'. I think 'Jingle' is a pretty good collective noun too.
Anyhew, tulips are due, in all their multiformed glories, from the tiny species tulips to the upright waterlily forms and into the riotous ruffles of parrot tulips. But it's gotten cool this week, so the tulips are a little less willing to come out, for all the forget-me-nots are in bloom. The tulips in our yard have only put forth leaves. Well, some put forth buds which withered. It was really warm for several weeks, that probably had something to do with it. That and the fact that tulips really like well-drained, full-sun - neither of which really could be applied to our back yard!
Meanwhile in the shrub and tree world magnolias are delighting the eye, also Camellias as are the various species of Prunus - notably the flowering cherry. All of which is very lovely and very welcome, even if the past couple of days wind and rain have somewhat spoiled the spectacle.
In case you weren't woken by a choir perched high in the local church tower, or a jingle** of Morris Dancers, today is May Day, Dear Reader. The First day of Summer if you look at some calendars. Should you look out of your window you'll realise that 'summer' is yet to come in. April was very nice and go-down-the-beach-ish for quite a while. May, to start with at least, is going to be more go-for-a-run-and-back-for-hot-chocolate. Being British we will take this in our collective strides - pausing only, perhaps, to pull on another pair of woolly socks. Other people have climates. Far too many people are suffering with Climate Change. We have weather.
Her Majesty has an 'official' birthday which she celebrates in early June with a parade - Trooping the Colour. By having it in early June it was thought that the weather for the parade might be good. Anyone who's experienced a few early Junes in the UK will know that it can be Really Nice, or it could just snow. Such is the joy of having 'weather'!
And Finally - when is a crash not a crash? When it is 'lithobraking'! The Messenger space craft which has been investigating the planet Mercury for a while finally stopped last night. It was programmed to crash into the planet, why I do not know, and is thought to have done so as no further signals have been recieved. Messenger had orbited Mercury for four years, sending back data, but had finally run out of fuel. In the best tradition of coming up with acronyms and different words, those who sent the probe decided to stop it. Dead. Or rather, by 'lithobraking', ie: running it into a Very Large Stone! What is it with men and crashes? Or women and crashes for that matter?
*Not to be confused with 'Mayday!' which used to be an international distress call, it may still be.
**The collective noun for Morris Dancers is a 'side' - comprising six or eight dancers, a musician or three and a bag(wo)man who goes round 'with the hat'. There may occasionally even be a 'fool'. I think 'Jingle' is a pretty good collective noun too.