Paris and London

I'm going to try again to show you some of the pictures we took in Paris and London. We rode the train from Wales to London, changed trains to the high speed one through the chunnel and landed in Paris. That travel took us most of the day, but the trains are really fast - only 2 hours from London to Paris.
This photo was a clock tower in Wales.

Hummingbirds

I am a real fan of hummingbirds, and have tried for years to attract them to my home. Yesterday I saw one sitting in a tree near my back window. I rushed to clean and fill the feeder, since they won't come back if they aren't fed. Success! A bird come to drink there. My feeder hangs outside a window near a trumpet vine and a mimosa tree. Both of those are also supposed to be beloved of hummingbirds. However, I thought I had lost my mimosa tree. No signs of life. Finally I noticed that there are buds in the upper branches. I may have lost some lower branches due to the cold last winter, but I am happy to report, the tree is alive. (I would HATE to lose another tree at this point, I am still suffering from loss of the willow!)

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Temple Square gardens

I knew after my last visit to TP gardens that if I didn't hurry I would miss the tulips at Temple
Square. So I played hooky and took the bus up last Wednesday afternoon. I'm glad I did, they were beginning to take out the bulbs and replace them with summer flowers.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

We went walking in the Gardens this morning early. Incredibly beautiful. We got our membership during the Tulip Festival, but due to the weather here in Utah this year, the tulips weren't actually out yet. (much) I could tell they would be within a couple of weeks, but I was laughing at some of the visitors there that day who were complaining about the lack of flowers. " What are they trying to pull, I thought this was supposed to be a Tulip Festival. They don't have any flowers!" You could see the greenery everywhere, and anyone who knows anything about gardening could tell they would be blooming later. The managers can't control the weather! Besides, they had lots of entertainment and booths and food, singers and artists to make it worth the price of admission even if the flowers weren't yet out in full force. Anyway, last week and this week the gardens have been gorgeous. With our couples membership we get to go early in the morning and walk when there is no one else there but the workers. It is always a lovely way to get our morning exercise. The flowering trees are also very much in bloom right now. I absolutely love spring flowers; hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils, etc. I don't have enough tulips myself so I hope to remember to get to the Gardens to buy their bulbs as they pull them out. Next year my house will be better in the spring. And soon, my lilacs will all be open! I don't have much done in the yard yet, still opening boxes and sorting stuff out to give to D.I. but I am gradually cleaning up the winter mess. Wish I could clone me. Remember "Multiplicity" ? I want three of me to work together on the same jobs. We could have fun together and get much done in garden and house.

Sad news

Since I am having trouble uploading pictures of the vacation I will have to come back to that later. Right now I have sad news for the gardener. I lost my big globe willow tree this week. It had been struck by lightening a few years ago, and was damaged. However, willow trees are amazingly resilient and it continued to live and grow. It was nearly 50 feet high, and beautiful. It gave fabulous shade to the house and was a joy to sit under. There has been a lot of wind here lately, and the winter was very cold. I picked up fallen branches as usual (willows trim themselves) and noticed that more large branches up in the tree were dead. Then Tuesday while taking our walk, I noticed that the nice round top was opened up. We walked over and looked and found the trunk was splitting three ways. Sweet C said I had better get it down before it fell on the neighbors vehicles, shed, and our fence. I called for a couple of estimates but before the second had even made it out the split down had increased by 3 more feet. I called the gentleman I had decided to have remove the tree and told him the problem and by the time he came to look a hour later, the split had opened another 4 inches in width. Both of us were concerned it would come down that night and so even though it was raining, blowing and lightening flashing, he came back with a helper and took down the dangerous parts that night. The next morning he came back and cut down the rest of the tree. It was huge, took him two large trailer loads to haul the brush away, and my neighbors took the firewood. So by Thursday night the whole things was gone. I am very sad. I hate having to lose trees ever, and this was such nice shade tree. My neighbors are also very sad to lose this tree as it gave them good afternoon shade. Sigh. I will need to figure out what I want to replace it with. I may want to build a deck on that side of the house and wait to plant a tree until after that is done. Do I want another willow? Do I want another tall tree? It feels so bare there!

Wales photos