Crabby

By my reckoning, the little crab apple tree in our back yard is about two weeks later coming into flower this year than it usually is, even though this is the most sheltered spot in the garden. This spring has been so cold that R and I are still trudging back and forth to the garage with plants I'm trying to harden off during the day, but daren't trust out in the bitter overnight temperatures we're still suffering. And don't get me started on the subject of my best black-stemmed hydrangea, which keeps losing every new leaf and shoot it produces to frosts: even if it survives these repeated assaults, I doubt it will manage to flower this year.

You may have spotted that I'm just a little grumpy. I do gardening because I have to, rather than with any sense of enjoyment, and I struggle not to take anything that makes it less than usually fun quite personally. Also, we're preparing for the Offspring to visit in a week or so, for the first time in what feels like years, and given that we'll be observing outdoor social distancing I've been working quite hard to make the garden look nice - which it usually does in late April, but this year.... not so much.

Anyway - enough griping. The crab apple is now coming into bloom, and given that it's relatively frost-resistant, it should be putting on a show for the next couple of weeks. Which is nice. On warm days it will also be covered with nectar-feeding insects, but today was not a warm day, and I had to wait a long time to capture this hairy-footed flower bee popping in for a snack.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a little warmer. We'll see.....