Suddenness

Spring!

The snow finally melted! The sun warms the Earth.

April 22 was the Earth Day and my whole garden was decorated with colorful crocuses.

It was unexpected to find crocuses in different places: were  they apparently moving “themselves” from place to place?

Look what species of crocuses I've found under the bushes, near the hydrangea, arborvitae, roses:

 

 



 

 






















Some crocuses are already fully blossomed, others have buds, others appeared out of the soil. Their roots grow directly out of the icy soil. 
But all of them surprise me and delight me: what a force of Mother-nature! 

 

"And Yet It Moves"

      In 16th century the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei worked at his observatory, watching the movement of the sun. He found out the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa as previously thought other scientists and the church.
Attracted by the Inquisition for his commitment to the "heretical" doctrine of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus about the Earth's rotation, he had, on his knees, to swear that renounced heresy.

Galileo, stamping his foot, said: "Eppur si muove" ("And yet it moves"), he uttered this phrase before the Inquisition in the day of public renunciation of his scientific "errors".

        It was my historic introduction due to the fact that when I've arrived at my summer cottage today, I also, after the great Galileo, have exclaimed: "And yet the Earth moves!"

The sun was shining, it was warm, nature has come to life.
I took a shovel and began to clean up the remains of snow. And that's what I have seen in this spring day:
crocuses have appeared in the morning and blossomed after 3 hours.

 

 Primrose and Stachys Lanata have grown their sprouts.

In the morning the snowdrops reminded me thin white sticks, and by 3:00 p.m. they had beautiful buds and flowers.

Tulips have hurried to grow their sprouts and the first leaves.

 

 


   







Behind the house, in the shadow, the snow still has laid there and I began to dig it up. Suddenly the leaves of evergreen Mahonia appeared. Here is saxifraga, its leaves are green if they wouldn't been under the snow 4 months. How I love evergreens!




 

Rhododendrons have proudly appeared out of the snow and begun spreading their rolled leaves. I have been very happy that their buds did not suffered and now I will wait for blooming rhododendrons. The smallest and lowest rhododendron appeared out of the snow this morning and 3 hours later I was able to see its leaves and flower buds.

 
 



















What a fine fellow was the great Galileo Galilei, who declared that the Earth moves!

Mid-April

    Mid-April and the birds come back with the warm wind and sun.
 

Ducks, geese, swans, goldfinches, robins, finches appear in the woods and gardens. They will start a new life, build nests and baby birds will appear.

Ducks

Ducks are lucky
Don't you think?
When they want to
Take a drink,
All they do is
Duck their bill.
(Doesn't matter
If they spill.)
When they want to
Take a swim,
All they do is
Dive right in;
And they never
Seem to sink.
Ducks are lucky,
Don't you think?

 Mary Ann Hoberman

Others ducks, pigeons and gulls wintered in the city. And urban birds rejoice open water on the river and canals, looking for food and fighting for it.

  Racing pigeon

The racing pigeon’s very fast
When chasing after food -
All other birds are pushed aside,
Which is extremely rude.

A large block of ice was floating on the Neva, gulls were sitting on it as on a cruise ferry, watching around.

When the birds were fed, they peacefully slept on the ice near the river.

The little pony was taken for a spring walk. He needed to stretch his legs after a winter stall, to run around in circles. It seems this pony has been happy with spring air and sun.

Prancing pony

Your prancing, dancing pony,

Oh, please don’t tie him here.

This cherry tree’s in blossom,

Oh, dear, dear, dear!

He’ll prance and dance and whinny,

He’ll neigh and stamp and call,

And down the soft, pink blossoms

Will fall, fall, fall!

P.S. I've found verses about ducks, dove and pony on 'Poems for kids' site.

Lucia-Maria has given me the new award 'I love your garden'. Thank you, Lucia!

I read many interesting gardening blogs so if anyone wants this award, feel free  to take it, please!

Meet: New Plants

   The sun is shining and my mood is vernal. The snow has begun to though slowly melt. There is little snow in the city; of course it is still lying in the garden.

After my previous visit to the garden center, I brought home the new plants. They have been in small pots, so I planted them in larger pots and boxes, that plants could grow before moving to my garden.

Here are my purchases:
Rhododendrons 'Nova Zembla' and 'Scintillation'. They began to grow actively in a sunny and cool place. I know very hardy 'Nova Zembla' is for zone 3; I have not seen comments about another one 'Scintillation'. It is written that it's for a zone 4-5. Did some of you grow such rhododendron?

I've bought two of hellebore, one is greenish-white, and the other is classic, white. They were very weak so I sprinkled a growth stimulator and hellebores began to grow.

My next purchase was Honeysuckle edible. I grow Honeysuckle caprifolium, the beautiful vine that has berries in August. But they are inedible. Now I'll get Honeysuckle's edible fruit. It has been actively growing and I think it should be shorten before the moving to the garden. How do you think?

Two weeks passed and I was not going to buy anything else. But ...Again I was brought to another supermarket and I could not resist. Roses were in a large selection and cheap (100 rubles ~ $ 3 each).

I had purchased one more Canadian rose: is a climber 'Henry Kelsey'. I have read that it could be left on its support for wintering, it is quite hardy. So I've got a chance to check if it is. Another one was floribunda rose 'Punch', I really liked the description of this rose: is covered with buds all season and resists diseases. Look this summer!

Two clematises were the last ones (I hope !). Although clematis grows in my garden, I like them to plant more, other varieties. Here are clematises 'Rouge Cardinal' and 'Miss Bateman'. I guess how wonderful they will grow: red and white flowers together! Clematises immediately began to grow in larger boxes, think I have to ship them carefully so as not to break their sprouts. How do you usually bring your clematis? 

 Thank you!