Iris laevigata "Snowdrift"

This Iris is growing in our small garden pond, and today  the first flower opened. There are lots more  buds. The flower stems and leaves will be used  by dragon flies and damsel flies when they emerge  from the depths of the pond, a bit later in the summer. 

Today the weather was perfect. This morning we spent  an hour buying a newspaper; the job took five minutes but we bumped into five different neighbours and had a conversation with each one, all of which were  hugely enjoyable. Oh, the joys of being retired  and not having to work most Saturdays, anymore! One neighbour was the mother of the star of the youth theatre  production  we saw on Thursday evening, and another had been to see the show last night, so we were all feeling very upbeat, and  had lots of positive thoughts to share.     

This afternoon we worked in the garden, planting  out the runner beans and last of the tomatoes. 

This evening it  was warm enough to eat  our supper outside, for the first time  this year.