Hi, everyone!
After our green days, we had some very warm weather. It felt just like summer! The crabapple tree in Grandma and Grandpa’s yard bloomed and so did the white trillium.
Then we had some heavy rainstorms and it got cooler again. The Lilac Festival happened all last week in Highland Park! The park gets really crowded because people come from all over to see the lilacs. Because of the warm weather, most of the lilacs bloomed for the festival. Because of the rain, all the magnolia blossoms fell off the trees. I wanted to see my lilac friends in bloom, so Grandma took me back to Highland Park during the festival. We went in the back way, by the azalea steps, to avoid the crowds. It’s a long climb for a little lion! Some of the azaleas and rhododendrons are in bloom, but most of them are waiting.
I saw lots of my lilac friends, but there weren’t as many blossoms on some of the bushes as in past years. I think the long winter was hard on lots of plants, not just the azaleas! The biggest lilac bushes were still covered with blooms and they smelled very nice!
When I was done visiting my lilac friends, Grandma took me to the front edge of the park, where all the festival food stands and entertainment are set up. During the festival, there’s a purple crosswalk painted on Highland Avenue between the flowers and the festival vendors! I was unhappy to see that some of the visitors didn’t pick up their trash after they enjoyed the flowers! I looked for my groundhog friends but they were all staying inside! When Grandma and I headed back to the azalea steps, I did find another very pretty tree with copper colored bark. And we stopped at the top of the park next to the reservoir to look out toward the Bristol Hills.
On Friday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa took me to the bay, and Joe-san and Nancy-san brought Moose-san out to stay, too! We had a sleepover, then in the morning Grandpa made waffles for everybody. It was a little too cool to eat them on the porch! Moose-san and I helped Grandma and Nancy-san work on a jigsaw puzzle, then I took Moose-san outside to see what was growing. The mint looks very healthy, and the euonymus that got eaten this winter is growing back fast! One of the rhododendron blossoms that the deer left is starting to bloom, too!
Harlan-san and his friend Jake-san came out to help Grandpa put the dock out. The frames and deck sections are heavy! Moose-san and I tried to help, but we decided that the best helping we could do was to stay out of the way! We did help Grandma make lunch to thank Harlan-san and Jake-san for helping, and it warmed up enough that we could eat it out on the porch. Then James and Thomas and their mommy and daddy Facetimed us from the Netherlands. It was James’ third birthday, so we watched him open his presents and sang happy birthday to him!
After lunch, Moose-san and I took a walk in the woods and the orchard. The jack-in-the-pulpits are up. The apple blossoms are open, too! There is a lot of clover in the orchard, so we looked for four leaf clovers. I found two right away! Moose-san thought it would be luckier if we had found nice tasty aquatic weeds. The Apple Blossom Festival in Williamson is this weekend. From the looks of the orchards around us, the timing is perfect!
Love,
Lion-san