Gardening and Cats

The weather here, and elsewhere, has been so changeable that I have not started the garden as yet. We had a week of 80n degrees in March and have been freezing for most of April, with some snow and sleet.

The little garden at the side of the driveway has done well in spite of it all. The purple swamp iris bloomed, as did the forget-me-nots and there are these little white things that popped up this past week. I don’t know what they are or where they came from. I know there were a few of them last year and now there are a lot of them. The mystery lily has spread and when it blooms this year there will be three separate plants. Last summer the main or “mother” plant had six blooms at the top. Quite showy.

Once again I neglected to thin out the Stella d’ oro lilies and they are so bunched together that I don’t expect them to bloom very well. I have heard it’s heavy work and that you have to take a very sharp knife or an axe to separate the bulbs and them I’m afraid I will replant them upside down and they’ll end up blooming in China. Or Australia.

While I was out taking pictures of the little white things, Sateen (our name for him) came purring over. He’s a stray who’s been in the neighborhood for five years. People try to take him in, but if there are or have been other cats in the house, he sprays, even though he’s been neutered. The woman next door feeds him and provides him shelter in bad weather in her garage. He’s very needy and he also drools. He is beautiful though. We are still missing Dupree. There was another stray around a few weeks ago, a lovely tortoise shell with Siamese markings, but she was quickly adopted by a neighbor. I think we need a cat.