This week I received a knock at the door from a neighbor informing me that her children and some other neighbor children had picked many flowers from my yard to decorate their sculpture in her sandbox. I went over to the sandbox with her to access the damage, and really, really felt more humor than anger. Those clever kids had created a whole fairyland with a moat and lots of details and my flowers and plants were the decorations. I sure wish I had taken a picture. Most flowers they picked were the spring bulbs, so no real harm done there, since those will come back next spring. (They also picked dandelions, so of course, they could have picked more!) Hopefully, the children have learned a lesson about asking before they pick others flowers, but, honestly, my own children are still learning that lesson.

Several plants are volunteering and/or growing rampantly where they aren't really useful. Raspberry is attempting to take over a veggie garden bed, and on the other side, grow up through the bushes. But, never fear, I have pruners and am not afraid to use them! Some carrots are growng in the path between the garden beds, and the strawberry spinach has seeded itself like mad in the bed in which it grew last year... Well, the strawberry spinach can just be a perpetual crop, I guess. Or duck food.

Our pear tree has some sort of blight or rust or disease on it, perhaps from all the moisture. I will need to do more research to determine what exactly is bothering it. For this year, I've probably already lost the whole pear crop.

I am enjoying the first open iris, a white iris whose name I forget.

The combination of Palmer's penstemon and Saponaria (or soapwort) look great together. I hope the soapwort continues to bloom until the Palmer's penstemon blooms, as I think that would be a stunning combination. I think I'll plant more saponaria near the other clusters of penstemon.

There were (and always are) some beautiful skies to enjoy this week.