It’s hard to believe that it’s already 21 April and this is the first time I’ve gone out to look at my plants and flowers, but it’s true. This is the first weekend that we were home that was nice weather (the previous nice weekend was when we were in Cincinnati, which was probably more than a month ago).

I knew that the cold and freezing weather coming so late were going to cause problems, but I was still surprised to see the amount of damage. My bleeding hearts look horrible, most of the roses needed pruned back hard, and the two hybrid tea roses are dead. The Japanese maple looks rough, as it was just coming into leaf when the snow came. But it looks like it is putting out new buds, so it may come through okay. Several other shrubs–including my favorite, the broom–took damage, with most having several inches of dead branches or stems.

Combine this with the fact that in order for my grandmother to fit into the house, I gave away or composted a lot of plants in the fall, and things are looking pretty barren.

On the bright side, however, this means that I can get all *kinds* of annuals this year.

Just to fill in the bare spots, you know.

After all, it’s not like we had anything else planned for our disposable income.

Except books.