I can’t let a 15th of any month go by anymore without a peruse for blooms for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – now a year old at May Dreams Gardens! This time of year it’s not easy to find outdoor blooms – I actually can’t tell if the hellebore is blooming today or still fully in bud (I didn’t want to track footprints into the bed to investigate)! More shall be revealed with the melt… Like most gardeners with a real hibernation style winter, we have more blooms indoors. Here is a little greenhouse selection:

Today at Blithewold has otherwise been about undoings. The garden volunteers came in to help finish un-decorating the house. It was a morning of organized chaos; a calm implosion of glitter and ribbon and a chance to reconnect with friends after the holidays. There is something about undoing that is a lot like gardening – it’s fairly tedious and yet relaxing (or is it mind-numbing? This group who spooled miles of tulle called it some kind of therapeutic – “moron therapy” I think it was…) and it’s completely gratifying to see the tree un-ornamented and boxes neatly packed and labeled – like finally taking a good satisfied look at the garden you spent all morning on your knees weeding. It seems like we only just decorated the tree and it will seem like only another moment before we’re back in the gardens together again. A couple of garden volunteers were honored at lunch today – Ann A. is beginning her 31st year in the gardens and Louise W. her 26th – that’s amazing dedication and devotion! And this gardener was honored and completely undone – I know now what it means to be “showered”! I’m going against the grain to include this picture of me (this blog is about Blithewold!) but I want those of you to whom my back was turned to see the giant grin you placed on my face (the tears didn’t show in the photo). Merci beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup!!