Flowers, music and cakes

It's been a busy few weeks... well, months... well, years... but anyway, we carved out a day last week to visit Dawyck Botanic Gardens. We've been there in snowdrop season and in autumn colours season, but have never managed to go at rhododendron and azalea time before. It was sensational. 

They don't photograph well, but there were drifts of bluebells everywhere. 

The flowers were just perfect. 

This is the house whose garden it used to be. Rather nice!

And the mecanopsis!

So beautiful. 

It's otherwise been all about the music recently. I've had two concerts, with my two choirs, a fortnight apart, in the same church. One featured Benjamin Britten, not my favourite though he has his moments, but the second, last Saturday, was all Mozart - the Requiem plus some shorter pieces. Just sublime. 

Now - concentrate - the first choir - the one I'm chair of - is also doing Mozart's Requiem, this Saturday, but as a Come and Sing for charity. People buy tickets and are lent a score and are fed tea, coffee and cakes. This takes a lot of organising (about 150 tickets sold so far) and of course I'm doing a lot of it. I'm rather looking forward to its being over.

So my poor garden is somewhat neglected, and the quilt for Mr L hasn't been touched for quite a few weeks. I need to get my life back!

 

Offspring and snowdrops

Son and family came down at the weekend when Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter were here, and Daughter 1 and family came over too, which was nice. Here are quite a lot of them playing with Lego. The person in blue, sitting on the sofa and bending over, is Big Grandson (13). He is currently rather long-haired. However, he does have beautifully thick hair and is still a lovely boy, though I would prefer that his hair didn't get any longer. 

We also played hide-and-seek in the garden. Here is Small Grandson, hiding (not entirely successfully) on a bench. 

But now, sadly, Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter are back in London, getting trains. 

So Mr Life and I went to an exhibition. I like this painting by James McIntosh Patrick (1907-1998). It's of Stobo Kirk in the Borders. The light and the shadows and the roof shapes are very pleasing. 

Coincidentally, Mr L and I were down near Stobo yesterday, to visit Dawyck Botanic Gardens and to wander among its snowdrops. 

We did this last year too, and I probably took exactly the same photos then. 

There are millions of them. Well, I didn't count them. But certainly tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. 

It was very lovely. Isn't spring just wonderful?