More April Flowers

In my blossom parade in the last couple of posts, I didn't get to any closeups of my Italian plum blossoms, so here goes:

Today when I stopped to photograph the first few blooms on my weigela ("Wine and Roses", I think - but I'm too lazy to dig up the plant tag from my drawer), this ant emerged from the inside, to get his photo taken also:

I am thankful for wonderful weather this weekend.  It meant that I was able to spend a number of hours in the garden on Sunday afternoon, while the kids played near me in the yard.  It was funny how it progressed from them asking if they could get wet (Me : "No, it's not warm enough for that"), to changing into their bathing suits, to hauling the kiddie pool out of the shed (yes, they're 11 & 9, but a kiddie pool is still good fun), filling it with very cold water, then jumping and finally sitting and laying down in it.  It felt wonderful to have the sunshine, and enjoy the warmth from it also.

I just had my lawncutter / landscaper come and organize my raspberry patch on Friday, so the kids and I were anxious to water it. (Now that I see what can be done with my flagstone path project, I will be asking him to do various small projects around the yard which are too heavy or difficult for me.  I'm quite excited at the prospect to have this occasional help around the yard, and see some good progress.)  The kids discovered that the dirt between the raspberries quickly turned to a slippery mud, so had fun sticking their feet in it, and making "mud shoes".  I wish I had gone inside for the camera, but was too busy gardening.

The raspberry patch was getting messy and full of aggressive weeds (some of which I planted as a filler before the raspberries filled in), so I decided to have them dig the whole thing up, and plant two straight rows, with posts and wires to maintain the structure.  The poor raspberries should have been moved a few weeks ago when it was cooler, when they weren't leafing and budding out, so they look pretty sad right now, and there is a bit more work to finish up, but here it is so far:

I plan to make an informal path through the center with wood chips, to keep it from getting muddy in future (I guess the kids will be disappointed).  Hopefully the raspberries will forgive me for the rough treatment, and still bear this summer.  If not, we can wait.  Fruit trees and bushes are an investment, but they sometimes require patience.