The End Of Perky

Testing, testing, testing. A diagnosis of lung cancer has been confirmed. I won't be doing a cancer journey blog. It may get mentioned from time to time. I suspect the number of posts will dwindle since walking the gardens is difficult when you can't breathe. One more test to go and the first appointment with an oncologist is on April 7th. The waiting for some actual treatment is not fun.

The last two rounds of cold in the teens and low twenties did very little freezer burn. Daffodils like rhododendron curl up in the cold and that has a tendency to snap the flowers stems making it impossible for them to stand back up. The show of perky daffodils is mostly over. There are many more yet to bloom, so it is not totally over.

Spring continues on. The early trilliums have started to rise and they were unfazed by the frigid temperatures.

The Trout Lilies also ignored the cold as they must, being one of the very first spring ephemeral wildflowers. Their spread through the garden has been dramatic.

The snowdrops have been multiplying abundantly too. The original clumps are getting fatter and seedlings are appearing some good distance away. My heiau may be about as big as it is going to get. Like sands in the hourglass, these are the rocks of the heiau.

Some damn varmint dug up the chionodoxa bulbs right after I planted them. I wasn't sure how many would show up this spring. It looks like I got a good take. This isn't the more prolific multiplying plain species though. Maybe they will surprise me.

This is what I like, when one becomes many. Trillium luteum keeps expanding.

A Brief Blue Bloom Day

The sun came out on a frigid Bloom Day morning. It took a lot longer for me to get going. I did manage a short afternoon stroll to see what the freezing cold had done. Not bad I suppose. The daffodils looked relatively ok, but more cold in the low 20's is scheduled for next week.

The newly planted chionodoxa in the Great Lawn have started to bloom.

So far, no varmint has eaten them. I did see a deer out in the garden this evening but did not have the energy to get up and holler, "Get off my lawn." Let my lawn turn blue.

In the golden sunshine of a cold spring day.

Amazing Grace

I spent my 65th birthday in a hospital. Testing, testing, testing. I have not been feeling better. My shortness of breath has gotten so bad, so rapidly, I can't walk ten steps without having to stop and catch my breath. My right lung is partially collapsed. I'm on oxygen now. The tentative word was lung cancer. More tests were needed for the particulars. I can't breathe which means I can't work and had to call all my clients to let them know I would not be back this year.

The daffodils have had an amazing, way early, full bloom this spring. It has been nice to see it happen. A cold front with a dash of snow came through and the lows the next two days will be in the lower 20's. We shall see what is left when the cold is done with a spring that came too soon.

The new pulmonologist doctor from the start of my appointment today was not in the least bit willing to declare lung cancer from the previous test results she had seen. It could be something else. Really? There is hope. Happy Birthday to me. Testing, testing testing.

Tomorrow they are going to drain all the fluid off my right lung. Hopefully it will re-inflate. Friday they are going to stick a tube down my throat into my lungs to collect a bunch of samples. This is what I wanted. Action. Now. To find out what is going on to steal my breath away. Cancer has not been ruled out, but it is no longer the only option. 

The doctor and hospital staff were wonderful today, speeding things through a backed-up system for a patient clearly in distress. My family, friends and clients have all rallied around me to let me know I am loved and appreciated even with my faults. That is such an amazing gift. I have lived a charmed and blessed life in so very many ways. I have so much to be grateful for.

The Trout Lilies will open in the sunshine. Let me be the boy who cried cancer. I have gardens to tend. I can handle the embarrassment of a false alarm in exchange for the love and caring I have seen. Testing, testing, testing.

The Handiwork Of Bulbarella Stinze

Is sprinkled with blue glitter generously throughout. Click on a picture for a walk with the daffodils.

Daffodils In The Forest

The daffodils are at peak bloom. In a normal year that would happen closer to April 1st.

This is not going to be a normal year.

I wait for the flat light of a cloudy day to go for a walk in Bulbarella's garden next door. The early warm pushing them to full bloom has been nice. The full sunshine of cloudless days is bad for picture taking in the light and shadow that causes in a forest filled with daffodils. The sun may go out tomorrow.

Gully Washer

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? 

And where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been 10,000 miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

The Daffodils Begin

The warm continues with passing systems producing generous rains every few days. The daffodils are in full on bolt.

The deer ate every last crocus on the Great Lawn. A giant flower show was obliterated in the night. It is most annoying.

Daffodils are poisonous thank you very much.

There are some crocus left right beside the house.

The Trout Lily have started blooming too. They are spreading at an exponential rate and could become groundcover like in a few more years.

This is unusual for the first day of March. Normally I would expect just the foliage to be up and showing by the middle of the month.

I may see daffodils bloom this year that quite regularly get zapped by a winter storm. That is not out of the question at this point for sure, but for now it is more warm days out to the horizon. The daffodils are going for it.

In the land where the waters will carry me away.