Social distancing ~ a ray of sunshine

While opening up the house this morning I caught a glimpse of the early sunlight  streaming through this window, I thought it was so pretty that I got my camera and took this picture. This is a north facing window and it is usually quite shady, however I did have the trees pruned  which apparently has allowed the morning sunshine in, a pleasure I will continue to enjoy until the foliage on the trees thickens up again.

The first, heavy spring flush of roses is almost over, roses will continue to bloom but not in such abundance. I have been spending lots of time dead-heading, a chore I really don't like. But the rose, Climbing Pinkie trailing across the railing on the back deck, is already covered again in buds. She is a very vigorous rose, one of my favorites and as you can see likes peeking through to the other side. Fortunately she is torn-less and quite easy to cut back.

Like everyone else there have been many things that I have had to give up through this time of social distancing but having a good supply of books to read has not been one of them. This due to the innovation, dedication and organizational skills of my local library. Almost immediately they were offering books and all of the other media materials for drive-by pickup. You call in your requests of  up to 10 items, and within 30 minutes they are available to you for pickup without any personal contact. For added safety, when the items are returned they are placed in a "quarantine" area before being available to be checked out again. I have always known that this library was special but this has only increased my admiration and thankfulness that I have such a wonderful local resource to enjoy.

For any of you that enjoy libraries as much as I do a wonderful book to read is,
The Library Book, Susan Orleans.

I posted before about my increased interest in planting seeds, here is the latest batch, the zinnias have just sprouted but many others are almost ready to plant out. Some of them have been experiments and I have no idea how they will perform in my climate zone, others are old standbys and some are plants I used to grow, such as Nicotiana Sensation and Ageratum Blue Horizon. It should be interesting to see what turns out to be a success and what will sadly end up a failure.

As a side note I read an interesting way to stop seedlings from becoming leggy, not to fertilize overly, which only increases the leggy growth, but to brush them lightly several times a day with your hand, imitating fans that are used commercially. Not all plants have this problem but I have always had  difficulty with zinnia seedlings. I have been doing this and it does seem to be helping. Rather like staking a tree lightly to allow the trunk to strengthened with gentle movement.

Last, I leave you with a bouquet I made to share with my gardening group at a Zoom meeting last week. Rather than being artful I was trying to include some of the things blooming in my garden...Eden roses, alstromeria, spirea, aquilegia, snapdragons, asclepias, and lantana.

Now that we are starting to loosen restrictions I hope that wherever you live are able to do it in a safe manner. This has been such a difficult and strange time, one that will not be easy forgotten.

Thank you for visiting

Stay safe and stay well.

Adrienne