I'm in here hiding from the garden

A late spring is always a fast spring.  Each morning as I wake up, I can hear the soft *thopp* of exploding buds, and flowers hastening into bloom.  The sequence is faster.  Plants are as genetically hardwired as we are.  If they don't produce when the prime pollinators and weather exist, they don't have an opportunity to contribute to their particular gene pool. 

The obligatory daffodil picture is a cultivar called 'Marieke'.  The deer and voles don't eat them.  This girl is in the back garden, western sun through the petals.

Two seasons have passed in the Etherknitter garden with neglect as the maintenance theme.  I'm paying for that this year.  Most dirt-dabblers know that mint is invasive.  Wisteria needs firm control, and bamboo is suicide.  I've found horseradish to be equally persistent.  I had to move to be rid of that horticultural mistake.

No one told me about Lamiastrum galeobdolon.  I did not truly understand what the label implied when I read "bright leaves for a problem area in shade".  It has run amok for two seasons.  I'm sure it outweighs me, and I will spend the next five years pulling and tossing. 

While I'm uprooting this weed, I have time to look around as I straighten up, try to unkink my back, and wave the bugs away from my face.   The princesses have put their party dresses on, to gambol in the shade.  Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)blooms next to the emerging shoots of Polygonatum odoratum.  Spring is male and female, yin and yang:

I can finally post a small FO.  It made its way to Toni, just in the nick of time, I think.  Her chemo is kicking in, and her hair is disappearing. 

This chemo cap was infused with as much love and hope and sadness as a knitter can possibly communicate through needles and yarn. 

Two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, held together, BubbleWrap cap pattern, courtesy of Lark Meadows:

In spinning news, I'm on the third bobbin of Coopworth for the handspun sweater.  While I'm effortlessly drafting and winding on (Coopworth is easy), I'm contemplating my next spinning challenge - a bit of black Rambouillet, courtesy of the irrepressible Marcia.   

I will leave you with a link.  It takes some time, but is vastly entertaining.  When you get to the page, click on the 'zoom' at the lower right of the movie screen.  You should get Jerome Murat's performance.

Comments

[margene]

The cap is looks soft and happy. May it bring her joy and good karma during her struggle. It's so nice to finally see flowers in your neck of the woods. Ours are nearly spent but spring is fickle as it's cold, w/snow today. The Rambouillet courtesy of Anne should also be coming your way soon...mine is in hand.

[Carole]

I love that you're "hiding" from the garden. What an appropriate term.

[Martha]

I love your bloodroot! I have to get another (chipmunks killed mine).

[Kathy]

I am sure that the hat will bring warmth and comfort.

[Cara]

Super freaky link!

[Marcia Cooke]

Sigh, I used to know all the Latin names, but it's amazing how quickly they depart! (I hope that's not Toni Neal getting that cap, not that I would like ANYONE to be that particular recipient!) Latin or English, my garden is the pits this year.

[Caroline M]

I've learnt by experience to avoid "vigorous" in a plant title and my bamboos are in big planters. One has proved itself to be tame but the other (on which the label clearly said "forms clumps") is an invasive runner which would have taken over by now.

I'm not sure that there is a cure for horseradish, mowing maybe?

[Beth S.]

This will be an in-the-yard weekend for us, too. Though we're not 'gardening' so much as we are 'destroying stuff before it has a chance to swallow the house whole'. I think we finally killed Audrey the Wisteria and the trumpet vine, but I'm nervous about the Concord grapes.

Maybe by next year I can start to think about making the place pretty.

[Marcy]

I don't know nuffin' about gardens, but I do know that they can see in the windows as well as you can see out. So you'd better draw the drapes if you're hiding.

[--Deb]

Hmm. See? This is why I don't garden at all!

[Lee Ann]

I'm just learning how not to kill my houseplants. :-)

[Teyani]

A beautiful hat - may it bring her a much loved feeling as she moves through this challenge.
Bloodroot is lovely. I will check to see if it will grow here - glad that spring has sprung where you are and you're enjoying it (I know I do)
May the battle with the giant weed be easily won!

[Manise]

I have Lamium maculatum aka Spotted Dead Nettle in my shaded dry area in my border and it is barely surviving. I have noticed a tiny bit in the lawn. So you're saying I should be very afraid and rip that sucker out of the ground?

The chemo cap turned out wonderfully- I love the pattern! I'm sure she'll love it and it will keep her warm- chemo makes you SO cold.

Ask me about my daffodils that I was gazing at as the sun was lowering itself in the sky. You'll laugh......

[Romi]

*sigh* I *heart* daffodils! Ours are long gone now, but we do have roses. :)

[Chris]

The photos, the words, the hat and a performance on top of it. Quite a treat this morning! Thanks.

[Sylvia]

Chemo caps are always bittersweet; I pour my heart into knitting them. May your friend find luck and comfort in her new hat.

Any plant can be or become a weed if it's in the wrong place. One of the advantages you have with your snow is it whacks everything back a bit! My in-laws blithely had a bunch of invasive (and not even very appealing) plants put in that I know I'll be fighting forever.

Beware, btw, of comfrey, lovage, and shamrock. They are hard to remove!

[Anne]

Lovely cap - it looks squishy and soft - perfect! LOL - That Marcia - she is a hoot.

[Bethieee]

I don't trust anything in the mint family. This is a little paranoid of me, but I have dealt with the mint that tried to take over the world and am understandably wary.

[Dorothy B]

Your orchestra is in the pit, warmed up and raring to go with stray notes that don't belong to the score. Some of the easiest to grow plants are the worst for taking over. That's why I only grow simple things that don't come back every year in one garden. I'm too lazy a gardener to grow more complicated things. Although I am planning on burying some bulbs in the back forty.

[Helen]

well, I've taken my first step toward a procrastination light life.
I ordered theh Procrastinator's Handbook from my library.
Only worked b/c I was right here at the 'puter (where I can do that), and you mentioned it, and it was really easy to do right away.

signed,
she who puts things off