Nystagmus quite likes the tall grass. He makes little nests in it where he sleeps.

Ingrid did some mowing the other day to earn more money. Adrian also wants more cash, so he tried to do the same. But it was hard work. The grass is high, and most of our garden slopes.

Maybe, just maybe, it would have been easier to mow the grass if I’d done it a bit earlier.

On the other hand, better late than never, and a half-assed mowing of half the garden is much better than none. My new principles for my new energy levels.

Poppies are so red it’s difficult to capture them on photo. It’s like the camera sensor is so overwhelmed it gives up.

Got the strawberry planter boxes cleaned and netted.

The neighbours clearing their yard for building a house are about to start blowing things up. Red things that I associate with explosions are sticking up from the rock in their yard.

An inspector of some sort came by earlier this week to inspect our house and install some kind of device to measure vibrations. Apparently we’re close enough to be in the danger zone for vibration damage, theoretically.

I had very little energy for gardening last season. I planted one peony and one plum tree. The above-ground parts of the peony turned yellow and died earlier in the season than most perennials, so I was worried that I’d let it die by not watering it enough. I’m happy to see it’s back this year. I didn’t kill it after all. (The little plum tree is also still alive.)

Cowslips are one of my favourites in the garden. They’re happily perennial here and turn up reliably year after year. One year I moved a bunch of them to get them more concentrated – instead of one here and one there, I now have a small cowslip meadow. In fact I even have three cowslip meadows, but only one of them is right next to the deck and nicely visible from the house.

I’ve been waiting for them to spread by seed. I wait with mowing the grass in that area until they’re all done flowering. But it doesn’t seem to be happening much. The clumps are slowly getting bigger, though.

In most clumps, some of the plants have much shorter stems. I wonder if it’s the babies of the clump, old enough to flower but not yet old enough to grow to full size.

They look good against a cloudy sky.

I just can’t help myself.