Delivery No. 3 | Peggy's Little Corner

May 16, 2020

This week it was time for my Mother’s Day tea. My children did another great job making it a special one, and transformed the house into a tea room for one day. My daughter, who is usually the organizer of my special days, was a little peeved at having to relegate the shopping to my husband, but was pleased when he hit the florist with as much vigor as she normally does. This year I got quite the bounty of flowers, so many, we were actually able to make several large bouquets and share the beauty with the grandmothers. We had another round of visits and depositing of gifts, and I think this will be the last one for a while.

This year the grandmothers got a lovely bouquet and a mother’s day basket grown from Peggy’s Little Greenhouse. Though there were some arrangements available in the stores this year, there were not as many as I have seen in the past, and I was glad I had the foresight to make my own baskets this year.

After all of our unseasonable heat, we have now been hit with a heavy frost, and now, unseasonable cold. I cannot say it is completely unseasonable, as in the not too distant past, heavy frosts and even the occasional snow was possible this late in the season, but each night this week has been consistently wintery. After our warm winter, and unseasonable hot spell, I am actually very appreciative of the cool weather. My only fear is that all of my poor hothouse plants are likely to suffer, along with all of the domesticated fruit trees that thought they were getting an early summer. The sheep love the weather though, and hopefully the bees got a chance to pollinate a few of the trees before the heavy frost took away the blossoms. Given that the orchard is on a hill, it should have prevented the worst damage other homes would have seen, but even in our well protected area, the frost was laying heavy on all the leaves. In spite of the cold, I cleaned out the greenhouse and gave it a good scrub along with all the pots. It will be a few days before that task is complete.

I woke up today and saw a farm casualty. The mouse that has been befriending the sheep drowned sometime last night. Even the wild animals you get attached to. Our robins have been raided too, and I have been fearing for my female cardinal, as well as our friendly woodthrush. Each night Harry goes beserk, but it’s difficult to tell who is to blame for the raids or the noise. We have been visited by a possum, two raccoons, and more than one cat, including a black one that is difficult to see even when he is right in front of you. Harry sees them, though, and smells them, and every night now, he knows if he waits long enough, he’ll catch one near the back door — Harry’s many adventures.