Out there

This is a wonderful year for anemone blanda; the flowers are quite large, and they are everywhere. Some people think of these as weeds, but we think of them as beautiful miniatures. We're seeing more Ice Follies and more Carlton daffodils every day. In additino to the earlier anemones (lipstick red with a white ring in the ceter and fringed edges and blue-wiolet with very cut or fringed petals), which are St. Brigid, we're also seeing more and more Monarch de Caen anemones (the kind that florists sell; they're red, magenta, blue-violet, and also white, with poppy-like centers). Several stems of narcissi were stolen between sunset on February 14 and the morning of February 15, probably for lack of Ice Follies to take. We have plenty of Montopolis, Bastrop, Avalanche, and Grand Primo left, but we don't pick them ourselves, preferring to enjoy them outdoors in their naturalized setting; why do other people pick them? We have very beautiful, long-stemmed, and aromatic extremely doubled and all-white tazetta narcissus blooming very prolifically. I always think of Erlicheer as showing some yellow, but these are entirely white, start to finish, so I'm not sure what they are. In a sheltered and sunny spot, what was left undisturbed of the alliums there are in bloom (left undisturbed by the trespass and pit dug there, that is). There are plenty of alliums to come in the cooler and more exposed parts of the yard. English peas continue to bloom. The best rose is leafing out. Pansies and violas are back flowering in their pots, and so are the pleasantly scented cyclamens in theirs. All types of herbs in pots are holding their own. We've seen one (unidentified) warbler and one mourning dove.