Natural fuzziness

We're in the home in Holland for a day, so that the menfolk can do some golf practice together. I'm a little more mobile, but this knee is really quite worrying.However it wasn't going to stop me from inspecting the garden, which I haven't seen for over 6 weeks, I think. Today's photochallenge theme, the last of the 7 days challenge, is : "This make me happy". Well, there's no secret about it, as you will know by now flowers make me happy, budding flowers even more, and when they're also full of fuzziness it's totally great. At first I thought there was nothing blooming or budding yet (and all the crocuses were already gone) but I did find a couple of shrubs with opening buds and then I decided to have a good look at the magnolia tree and bingo ! Straight out of camera, apart from the slightest of crop.

There's a story to tell about the magnolia tree. Last year a complete stranger came to the door to ask if he could cut some branches from it for propagation, as it was such a magnificent tree. We said NO ! This year three weekends ago a neighbouring friend drove past our garden and saw a stranger standing in our front garden near the magnolia tree. She and her son knew nobody was home and took action by stopping and asking him what he was doing there. He said that the boys had given him permission to cut some branches, that he thought they were off to Belgium. My friend said she didn't think so and would phone us to know if this was true and the man disappeared. Quite worrying really, and since then son no 1 is on tree watch. Then there was an article in the local news and ads paper. An elderly lady with a budding magnolia trees in her garden had had similar people at her door, telling her that the tree could do with a trim and they would be willing to do so for a small fee. They then proceeded to cut the tree completely down to the trunk, she stopped them when seeing they had cut away half of the tree, they left her with a mess (although they did take all the branches with them) and even  took some of her garden equipment with them too. And of course they left no names, tel numbers or anything else to identify them. The bloody cheek of some people! It's always especially horrible when they take advantage of the elderly.

Apparently they use the branches for a quick sale as cut flowering branches for Easter. Propagation of magnolia trees is kind of difficult and certainly not something to do right before they start to bloom. The cuts will bleed in spring and summer, harming the tree. 

Hopefully this one will be in full bloom and unharmed by Easter !

Thanks very much for your kind comments, stars and even faves for yesterday's tulips collage. There are so many tulips for sale in Holland and Belgium right now. And the Keukenhof has opened this weekend and who knows, maybe this year I'll get to finally see it myself :-)