Spring Inches Forward.

4-20-11 SHORT HILLS: The last few days here have been cold, rainy and foggy, but we got only 0.1 inches of rain. Everything is still soggy and muddy. These cold, dark days seem to suspend spring’s progress. This afternoon it cleared and warmed up to the seventies, and you could almost see the leaves growing.

I started working on bench repair for a couple parties Judy [and I] are planning. Three old park-type benches that I rebuilt in the eighties have rotted away again. Today I ripped a 12 foot 2x12 plank into a couple dozen slats and ripped a pressure treated 2x4 into slats for the bases. It makes a lot of sawdust. Assembly tomorrow if I don’t have too much trouble getting the rusted bolts off.

At the feeder: the gold finches are quite golden now, first red-wing blackbirds heading north.

New blooms: violet, marsh marigold, saucer magnolia, flowering pear.

There’s not much to show here, so I’ll post some flowers from Italy.


Wisteria in Arezzo.

Flower market, Orvieto.

Flower market, Piazza Fiori, Rome.