Spring forward.

Diarist-woman is currently running around the house setting the clocks ahead one hour in anticipation of tomorrow's return to summer time.  In doing so she's discarding an hour of my life into that netherworld to where such hours go, never to be seen again. She claims I'll get it back in the fall, but if this truly is some sort of a "savings" plan shouldn't there be interest and shouldn't smart savers get a bit of compounding?  By being clever (or perhaps prudent) one should be able to boot-strap one's self to that lofty position of being able to "live" off one's saving time interest without spending the principal and thereby never age.  Clearly there's a flaw somewhere in this reasoning.  It probably has something to do with the failure of large financial institutions in NYC causing a misalignment of the space-time continuum.  But enough of such philosophical drivel.  Today's post shall consider spring; the time when a woman's fancy turns to...

Gardening and yard work.

The day dawned grey and chilly.  I set a fire in the fireplace with the idea of a quiet day of reading but by lunch time the sun had come out, the clouds had gone away and things had warmed to the upper 50s.  After putzing around the house and doing various errands a decision was made to take a ride out to Homestead Gardens, an establishment which I refer to as "Gucci Gardens".  Things there are all very nicely done but of course at a price.  It's the kind of place to walk around gathering gardening ideas while keeping your wallet tightly shut. Today the nice folks at Homestead had several "events" on offer including a seminar on stink bugs but the goodly Elisabeth wanted to look at composting tumblers so I must report that my education about this important class of insect remains unimproved.

As a compensation for the missed opportunity to learn more about the life cycle of the sting bug, Gucci Gardens also had a range of phalaenopsis orchids for my consideration including one which was so blue that at first I thought it was artificial. 

My camera doesn't do it justice.  In reality the flower is an almost revolting "electric" blue.  I was all for getting one but Elisabeth allowed as how it would clash with our window treatments.

And, there were others.

There were of course lots of nicely grouped plantings.  Here's one for those of you still buried under snow.  (Double click to enlarge.)

But the best display was this rich selection of garden gnomes and bronze frogs.

Aren't they simply divine?

While I looked in vain for plastic pink flamingos, diarist-woman bought a bag of lily of the valley pips.  With our finances still largely intact we got out of this place and went off in search of refreshment in nearby Annapolis.