Kathleen's Korner at TheStidhams.com

So many things are blooming right now!

The roses are all healthy and lovely. The dahlias are getting tall. I finally cut down the tree that had peach leaf curl so badly, and pruned back the other one hard. The lilacs are done for the year, but the irises are up all over the yard. Some of the plantings by the house are so exuberant this year that I am thinking I’ll need to divide and thin for the first time! and the chestnut trees are begining to get some real height on them.

The grass needs perpetual mowing, but when it is neatly trimmed, the rest of the yard looks pretty decent! It is exciting each year to see progress and know that both the planned events and the unplanned are working together nicely to create a real landscape.

Yesterday was lovely. Spent most of it working on a scarf for mother’s friend who is retiring this weekend. My parents took us all out to dinner, and though the weather was quite rainy most of the day it wasn’t bad. Even able to open the doors by late afternoon.

A small wren flew into the house just before the boys all got home while I was changing out of my art clothes. Poor dear little creature! It was so small it managed to get behind the piano. Finally, I managed to get him and escort him outside. He just sat on my hand for a while before flying off. He wasn’t hurt at all, just a little scared… I don’t think he’ll come inside again.

So for my birthday it was quiet, and nice.

Hadn’t realized how long I had left off updates… probably a good thing since it meant life was relatively quiet!

The weather the week after Mother’s Day was quite warm – August weather, really; this last week has been cool and rainy — more like March or April. I guess it all evens out to just about right for this time of year!

We have had a good month, all in all — however our well is not working at the moment. One of the electrical components appears to have faulted sometime Saturday evening, and so we have been drinking bottled water and using out emergency water supply for dishes and hands — and buckets of water to flush… somewhat primitive, but since we still have power we can cope! Of course the well company was closed for Sunday and the holiday and most of the hardware stores as well. We’ll get the replacement parts tomorrow, we hope. Keeping our fingers crossed that this was the only part that failed, we don’t think the pump itself needs replacing.

Tomorrow T goes on a field trip with G’s class, and we have about four more weeks of school before summer vacation. Will do a garden update in my next post…