It's been a busy day. One of those days when you feel compelled to do things you've meant to get around to, and finally do. Irving has been outside most of the day. He and Daniel were busy sorting out who gets what in the garden soil Daniel picked up. That's for refurbishing the lawns that are in such dreadful shape.

And while he was out, Irving decided to take the double tarps off that were covering all the garden pots that had been emptied and assembled in one place to shelter them from the cold, snow and ice over winter. He already had taken all the coverings off the urns and the statuary. We don't cover them every year, but decided to, last fall. It's nice to see everything out again, anticipating filling the pots and urns with soil and plants.

Melanie was out raking her lawn, it's a wide, sprawling corner property and she has lots to rake. Irving got out his electric thatcher and took it over to her, explained how it's used and left the rest to her. She's quite an amazing woman; nothing fazes her. She, in fact, has always done just about everything around the house. Now that Mustapha is so ill, she looks for a bit of relief from the tension she's constantly under, taking her mind away from her constant state of inner turmoil over her impending loss.

With but one single exception we've been fortunate to have really wonderful neighbours. We've known one another for so many years, and there is a social environment of trust and appreciation between everyone. There are notable gaps in that social bonhomie wherever new people have bought homes on the street when the original owners, moved over the past decade for a myriad of reasons.

We've decided not to use all of our huge garden pots any longer. They represent a lot of hard physical work, filling and emptying them. Planting them is just sheer pleasure, as it watching everything mature and blossom. But at 84 we're getting too 'mature' to continue that physical slogging. We've offered the clay and the glazed pots to our neighbours, reducing the number we'll have left to care for.

Irving decided to drive the truck over to the nursery at Canadian Tire to pick up peat moss, sheep manure, grass seed and more garden soil. In his absence Jackie and Jillie and I went out to the garden to do some puttering about in the backyard. I planted some Gladiolas, Toad lilies, Dahlias and Asiatic lilies. It felt so good to be doing that once again. Jackie and Jillie sniffing about wondering what I was busy with.

The grape hyacinths are now blooming, delightful little spring surprises, just like the scilla, which bloom earlier. The clematis vines are putting out new shoots and the roses are continuing to prepare for their June show-off; no flowerbuds yet of course, but lots of foliage.

It's been a heavily overcast day, rain pending, but waiting until this evening. It's also been an extraordinarily mild day with a high of 16C, perfect for doing things out-of-doors. Just to be safe we wore rainjackets when we accompanied Jackie and Jillie to the ravine in the afternoon. We don't see much in the way of wildlife in the forest, though we know it's there, from skunks to rabbits, raccoons to foxes. The coyotes have moved off and we're grateful for that, since it allows us now to have Jackie and Jillie off leash. 

One of the little raccoons that visits us daily surprised us earlier in the day, because it was so early in the day when he came around. Most often they're on the porch after our return from our ravine hike, between three and five in the afternoon. This little fellow was munching away on Cheerios at one in the afternoon, full daylight, comfortable and focused.

More trilliums are opening, their bright crimson flowers flashing in the dun landscape of the early spring forest floor. While I was taking a photograph of a  trillium, a lovely apricot-coloured Labradoodle came around wondering what I was doing, and he became part of the photograph I took of the trillium.

When we returned home, the sight of the larger of our two magnolia trees at the front of the house beginning its bloom arrested our eyes. There are hundreds of blooms, some beginning to open, the rest with swollen buds, just covering the tree. Under the tree is a Sargenti crab, and it will begin blossoming soon, as well. And under the crabapple tree there's a Japanese quince and in another week it will be full of tiny orange flowers.

The magnificence of nature's spring awakening.