after the peak comes the real summit

It reminds me of our trip to Snowdon Mountain last month: you thought you were taking the little mountain rail up to the summit, but technically, that is not correct. Once you disembarked, there was a short climb to the real tip of the mountain.

I may have thought that yesterday was the high point for spent lily collection. I had broken last year's record by another 100 plus lilies. At 876, I was sure that I would climb no further. But this morning, I collected a whopping 1,050 finished lily blooms.

Of course, this reflect on the glory of yesterday. Today's heaping buckets of wilted flowers are yesterday's eye candy. Still, one can debate whether the garden's glory peaked yesterday or on this day.

Or, you could dispense with the debate and simply enjoy what's before you. There was a lot to enjoy this morning!

Still, picking off 1,050 flowers takes time (two hours to be exact). I had a mid morning appointment today and so the morning a little bit ran away from me, not helped by the fact that my coffee machine has decided (true, after giving me more than 5000 great cups of espresso) to show its age and Ed spent not a small amount of time trying to convince me to replace it with the rock bottom priced machine, one where some reviewers claimed that drinking its coffee was akin to pouring milk into a cup of warm, dirty water and calling it a cappuccino.
Why don't you give it a try -- he would say. Then, upping the ante -- I'll tell you what: I'll buy you the cheapest machine. If you want your more expensive one (the difference is about $40) -- you pay for it. (In all fairness, Ed does not drink coffee.)

It took me many hours of thought before I make a decision on that one.

But don't let all this distract us from the task at hand, which is to admire the glorious farmette's secret garden. (It is secret: few people see it. Cats, bats, swallows and the occasional groundhog, rabbit, or deer, but not a whole lot of people.)


Little frog...






Big frog...






Big Bed...






Little bed (by the parked cars)...






Front bed...






Hey, Happy! What are you doing here??






close up: Persian Market lilies...






Lily bed...






Finally, breakfast:







In the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop.

I ask her if she'd been attacked by a vampire (note bandaid at the throat).





Oh, no, gaga. I just had a mosquito bite because we forgot to use bug spray.
Maybe you don't need the bandaid anymore?
I do! It's not dangling yet. You take off the bandaid when it dangles.

She gets distracted by the flowers growing by her school. Queen Ann's Lace is an invasive and an attentive gardener would have ripped it out of the flower bed, but honestly, it is a very pretty weed and Snowdrop hits it on the head when she exclaims -- it smells like honey! (It's our code name for sweet smelling flowers, like, for example, alyssum.)






Arriving at the farmette -- Java, I have nothing for you! See?






The run to the front door...






At home -- Katie Morag, day 2! We read the book three, maybe four times.











There's so much to talk about after each reading! And after we're done, we recreate the characters and spin new stories on our own.







Evening. There's a bit of a scheduling snafu and as a result, I am left scrambling to come up with a dinner for myself. That's never really a problem at the farmette: we have too many eggs and at this time of the year, there are always veggies and lettuces in the fridge.

I take my dinner to the porch. Ed is biking tonight -- what a gorgeous evening for it!






I read my book, occasionally peaking out on the flower beds.





You're beautiful! -- I want to say to them. But... just so you know, I'm okay with cutting back on lily clipping tomorrow. I'll love you anyway, even in a smaller incarnation!