Finally!

Hi, everyone!

Last week we did get some warmer weather for a day or two.  More of my crocus friends bloomed (in the places they’d been planted) and the very first daffodils bloomed.  Friday Grandma and Grandpa took me to the bay and we got the lawn raked there.  I went to my first sunset at the Point for the year.  Sunset was cloudy and we had rain Saturday morning.  Then on Sunday we had wet snow again! The weather person on the television promised we were finally going to have dry and warm weather early this week!

James’ and Thomas’ family will be moving back from the Netherlands this summer!  Grandma and Grandpa and I are helping them find a house to live in here.  Yesterday we went to visit one that they might buy.  It has a big back deck and a nice sunbeam from the skylight on the second floor.  Guess what?  There’s a little play house right under the basement stairs!

Grandpa was helping the inspectors make sure everything in the house worked the way it is supposed to.  When the inspectors tested the smoke alarm, the fire department came!  The same fire company would come if we needed them at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Harlan-san’s father used to be their fire chief!

After that excitement, Grandma took me for a walk around our yard to see whether the plants believed that spring was really here.  The forsythia by the deck is in bloom, and there are more daffodils blooming all over.  The new daffodils we planted last fall are tall enough so nobody will step on them by accident!  Grandma keeps putting coffee grounds on the little red tulips, and so far nothing has nibbled them off!  If you look closely, you can see green on the apple trees.

Today,  I asked Grandma to take me to Highland Park so I could see my flower friends there.  The cherry trees by the conservatory are just barely starting to bloom.  None of my tulip friends had blossoms yet.

The Poets Garden always has the earliest blossoms.  The first azalea was blooming there, and the scilla and daffodils were also in bloom.  My helleborus friends that were squished by the snow last time I visited are standing up nice and straight now!

The Lilac Festival starts in nine days! Grandma and I are not sure the lilacs will be ready then!  Right now, only the very first magnolias are in bloom.  There are big green buds on the lilacs, so maybe the early ones will be ready when the festival starts.

On the south side of Highland Park, there’s lots of activity to get ready for the festival.  I helped the gardeners plant the little round pansy bed.  There were a lot of workers moving logs and branches around.  Do you suppose they’re making a playground?  That would be nice!

Grandma and I looked for groundhogs, but none of them were out.  Then we visited the big pansy bed to see this year’s design.  The gardeners working on the little round bed on the south side of the park said some people never cross the street to the north side and think their little pansy bed is the famous one!

Now it’s all the way up to 82 degrees F. outside!  Grandma had the sliding glass doors open so we could enjoy the fresh air, but we might need to close them now before it gets too hot!  Grandma says if we have another day or so of this weather, we might have green day.  That’s when all the leaves on the trees come out at once.  Maybe the lilacs will be ready in time for the Lilac festival!

Love,

Lion-san