I had earmarked today to get out into the garden and do a little work. So much for that. As that old bit of wisdom has it; 'The best laid plans of mice and gardeners do often go astray'.  The one element aside from time that you need to work in the garden is agreeable weather, but it was not to be. We suspected as much; yesterday's glorious day was a break in the cool and wet weather we've been experiencing. And the forecast was for another ongoing week of heavy overcast, rainy and cool days ahead.

At least we were able to get Jackie and Jillie out early in the morning before the rain started; 'out' as in the backyard, no further. Later, in the midst of morning rain nothing could convince them it was time to get out and relieve themselves. This time, even Jackie balked at the prospect of getting soaked, the rain was so heavy. And to get Jillie out I actually had to grab her, scoop her up and deposit her outside with an injunction to pee. 

 

Once they were in, I stayed out anyway, wearing a rainjacket. I pulled up a few weeds, struggling to get their entire root systems up, and saw that the rock garden periwinkles despite the rain, were in bloom; tiny, bright-blue cheery little flower heads. The periwinkle, a robust ground cover perfect for rock gardens, feels it's also perfectly entitled to spread elsewhere in garden plots dedicated to other plants, and over the years has done just that, creeping stealthily along from the rock garden to an adjoining garden border, and then another...

 

The first of the snake-head fritillaries is also up, its dangling little flower head resembling that of a snake, taking advantage of the still-bare-of-perennial appearances to make its lone statement. It too is a flower whose bulb was originally planted in the rock garden, and somehow one of its offspring has gravitated to another garden bed far removed from the original.

When I got back into the house finally, I was drenched. Neither Jackie nor Jillie offered to towel me down for comfort, as we do with them after they've been exposed to such drenching conditions. Little ingrates.

 

Our plans for the day obviously altered, there were other things to be done to occupy me. First among which was the need to bake a batch of the sugar-vanilla-wafers that Irving enjoys eating. And next in line was a jarful of pickled eggs. I haven't made them in ages, and Irving is fond of them. So that was done, and then I thought it was high time I began the spring cleaning finally; put off for long enough.

 

I always start in the kitchen, and the first part of the kitchen cupboards is the pantry, a set of cupboards that cover the entire wall of one end of the kitchen. One by one the shelves were emptied, sponged down, wiped and then re-stocked. It took awhile and by the time I was finished I had done other things in the interim, like hauling the puppies out to the backyard again, and cutting up their afternoon salads for them.

 

By the time I was finished with everything it was time to start preparing a dinner soup for this cold, wet day because we surely needed the comfort of a hot, nourishing meal. Cutting up vegetables for the soup gave Jackie and Jillie the impression they were owed more vegetables and they advised me in no uncertain terms that their patience had its limits...