Dandelion Clocks already?

The rain and wind have brought down a lot of the blossoms you saw in the last blog entry, so I had a nice walk yesterday kicking them around like autumn leaves, trudging through ankle deep petals on that path. The hot weather last week also blew all the dandelions, and now there are fields of clocks, which I love, a natural toy to play with.

I've never understood why people want to eradicate them -- lovely nutritious greens followed by perfect gold flowers followed by fuzzy clocks. And yes, I've had gardens, and no, I don't think lawns are a Good Thing, just fighting nature rather than working with her, in my not very humble opinion, so dandelions, and veronica and chickweed and rogue trees are all in the game.

Where I live, central NJ, fertile alluvial plain between clay ridges, you have to mow, though, or you'd have a dense forest of rogue trees before you can turn around. When I had a big yard, quite a few cherry trees and Norway maples and other uninvited guests found themselves in friends' yards, some of said trees now full size and impressive.

Now I have a teeny patio and a small area along a path, but still have plenty to pass on to fellow plant fiends. Today a freecycler dropped by to pick up a bunch of spearmint I'd promised her, massive root system, and I warned her firmly to put it in a pot, not let it loose in the yard, or she will have nothing but spearmint. She's very happy with it, and I was certainly happy to yank it out and give it away.

When she arrived, I was in the midst of fixing Easter, that is not a typo, dinner. HP was in the hospital on the real Easter Sunday, so we had a rough sketch of a celebration, and today we decided to have the real thing.

HS arrived with Easter eggs, Asiago and Gouda cheeses and great cracker mixture, and I organized ham and peas and pineapple and mash, and along with wine spritzers for the two of us who can do that, and fake beer for the one whose medication rules out alcohol, we had a merry time, despite pouring rain and unspringlike cool weather.

Table decorations included the big glass bowl of painted eggs from New York chickens, and unpainted shells from the Jersey shore, the tiny cockatiel eggs in the English Wedgwood miniature cup and saucer, French Limoges cat, Boehm, Trenton that is, rabbit, Peter Rabbit baby mug from HS' childhood, Limoges porcelain little easter eggs, all very festive. And we had a candle in a Flemington NJ cut glass candle holder, for our own Paschal candle. I was impressed that I'd been able to find all this stuff from the place I'd put it away last time we used them.
All in all, a good time was had by all, with the international decorations.

HS withdrew quietly later in the afternoon when both parents were snoozing peacefully....nice time.