Hi, everyone!
The Sunday after Easter, Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay. The maple trees were all in bloom! I went down to the boathouse to see how much higher the water in bay had risen. Some of the waves were lapping right up onto the deck! We went up to the Point to watch sunset in honor of Earth Day. Then, on Monday, Grandpa set up a big ladder in the living room using a rope between the windows as a support! When we had the big storm that damaged the heat pump, it also damaged the control unit on the ceiling fan. Grandpa had to climb way up to take the unit down to repair! Grandma and I stood on the bottom rung to keep the ladder balanced.
On Monday, I went back down to the boathouse to see if the water was getting any higher. Even without waves, the water was coming over the decking boards! The water was so high in the boathouse that beavers were starting to build a home there! People living on the shore of Lake Ontario are very worried about high water damage and flooding. Greig Street in Sodus Point is close to lake level even when the lake is lower. Now the water is over everybody’s breakwalls and there are emergency walls of sandbags in place.
Wednesday was a warm and sunny day, so Grandma and I went back to Highland Park to look for groundhogs again. The first section of tulips were blooming in the tulip bed, and lots of the flowering trees were in bloom, too! I felt like I was doing hanami, just like Uncle David’s family does in Japan! There were artists at work near the Poets’ Garden. They certainly had lots of pretty sights to paint!
Lots of my magnolia friends were starting to bloom! I said hello to my yellow, purple and pink friends on my way to the lilac hillside!
Grandma and I checked out the groundhog burrows, but we still couldn’t find any groundhogs to photograph! I could see that the early lilacs were starting to blossom. The gardeners are getting the pansy bed ready for the Lilac Festival, too!
We walked back through the rhododendron and azalea plantings. Except for the purple azalea, these bushes bloom later than the lilacs. I was glad to see that the rhododendrons still had all their flower buds — even without a deer fence for protection! Then I made friends with a flowering almond and a redbud tree.
We usually visit the Poets’ Garden first when we go to Highland Park, but on this visit we went there last. The helleborus are taller and some of the flowers are even looking up! I made friends with some blue windflowers, too! Then I made friends with some dandelions. I like them best because of their name! When we came home from Highland Park, I spent some time with our apple trees and daffodils. I’m glad to see how good our apple trees look after all the work we did pruning them!
Last Thursday, Grandma and I made a fancy dessert for Grandma and Grandpa’s church dinner group. Almond brittle cups are baked like cookies, but then they get molded into a cup shape while they are still very warm. I was a good helper putting the batter on the cookie sheets, then cutting the rounds apart so they could be shaped one by one. Everything has to happen very fast, before the disks cool down and harden! Once the cups were ready, I helped Grandma make passion fruit cream, too!
Thursday night, Grandma and Grandpa and I watched Uncle David riding his motorcycle in Japan! The track where he was riding has live cameras that stream on the internet. I was excited that Uncle David was the fastest rider!
Friday, I spent some time visiting my flower friends in Grandma’s yard. The crabapple tree is blooming now and so are the red-cupped daffodils!
Today is May Day! We started the day at Sodus, and there was a pretty sunrise. The very first non-purple azalea blossom was open, and the other big red azalea has lots of buds! I can’t wait to see it in bloom! Then I checked to see whether the water was getting any higher. It doesn’t look higher to me, and that’s a good thing!
Then Grandma and I looked for blooming wildflowers in our woods. We found purple trilliums and a jack-in-the-pulpit and some big dogtooth violets. Then we checked the herb garden. The apple mint wants to take over everywhere!
When we got back to Fairport, there were lots of severe weather alerts. There was even a tornado watch! We had a little wind and heavy rain, but by sunset the bad weather was over. So on May Day we had both flowers and showers!
Love,
Lion-san
Under no circumstances will an engineer call a repairman….regardless of the risk! 🙂
There are so many flowers!
You are, of course, the most dandy lion.
LaVache
Thanks, Lion-san. You are good chronicler of events!
Spring is such a glorious time! I am so glad you are enjoying all the beautiful flowering trees and wild flowers, Lion-San. I do not think I’d want beavers in my boat house. Happy May. Great Aunt Betsy
Quite a flower adventure! We all like the spring flowers. It is nice you got to see Uncle David and he won! I hope you didn’t get a wet bottom sitting on the dock and sand bags. Nancy-san checked the rain guage and it said 1.5 inches and it all came at once. Moose-san is anxious to go out and look for aquatic weeds in our pond.