Sunday Evening, Monday Morning

On Sunday evening Betsy and I went to visit Marie at  66 Square Feet! It looks as charming and lush in person as it does in her photos. If you've read her blog, you know she loves food, and this woman can cook, with range, which I have an eye for because my own cooking is decidedly without, and I won't go on without saying that we ate very well.

I didn't want to show up an empty-handed gardener, so I brought some of my potted-up tomato starts. She graciously offered some of her seriously everbearing strawberries in return, which you see below. I miss picking wild summertime strawberries in the old farm fields of Maine and Marie's bloggins had once again wet my appetite for having them close at hand.

We probably kept Marie and Vince up way to late for a Sunday (or any day, old man that I am). Upon returning home, I hopped the fence to put the new strawberry with the other herbs, and what did I find? None other than a gray tabby cat round sleeping in my pot of thyme! I had to wake the darn thing before it even noticed me -get out of there I hollered. Nothing worse than thyme sprigs full of fine, wavy cat hairs, I put Marie's strawberry pot in the thyme pot to keep the cat from returning.

In all the fuss I broke one of the iris buds, which then became the first to bloom indoors, in a ball jar.

The next morning I went out to check on everything. Overnight, I hadn't even noticed that the iris had opened. Their scent is citrus, vanilla, a hint of passionfruit? Chocolate? I'm still working on the scent bouquet thing.

And the Johnsons Blue geranium is blooming too, a little less blue to me than violet, or periwinkle, with blue tinge on the fringe.