Garden Week "Do-over"

Tree Peony briskly blooming in the garden during Virginia Garden Week.

Chris and I at Loews looking for blooming begonias.

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind with garden work, shows, events, crafting and more with my sister, Chris, coming to visit us and help out with everything in between.  I could hardly keep track of the days with the weather shifting from 40's to 90's on a whim or, at least on a shift of the winds.  Still not much rain to speak of either, unless I'm at a show or holding a tea, of course!  Okay, dearest Mother Nature, I apologize for any impertinent comments that I have made in your direction, but could you please talk to all of your weathermen and ladies out there and tell them to get their ducks in a row and start forecasting a little more accurately?...PLEASE?!?!

Saturday, April 21, and hardly far from the maddening crowds at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival.

Sunday, April 22, was cold and rainy, but a good day all the same!

The Leesburg Flower and Garden Show was totally awesome with a record crowd recorded on Saturday, holding off the bone chilling Sunday and it's continued traffic flow of die hard gardeners, even in the wind and pelting rain.  Virginia Garden Week, at least up here in Loudoun County, was cold, a bit rainy and very unpredictable with it culminating in a smorgasbord of weather, all the way up through this past weekend.  And, with the coming heat wave, I think I want a "do-over" with a little bit of nice spring weather. You know--the kind of nice spring weather that calls for cool, dewy mornings that lead into soft, breezy afternoons with azure, clear skies and puffy white clouds that give way to nighttime gentle rains-- a pipe dream, I know.  We used to call spring, "sweater" weather, not "go back to the hall closet and grab your winter coat because you're gonna need it until summer comes" weather.

One eerie and frosty morning last week.

My sister, Chris, channeling Grandma Helga Charlotta.

Tea time at Blooming Hill where, as our grandmother used to say, "the sun always shines" even in cold, rainy weather.

Even with the frost free date still yet to come, somewhere around Mother's Day here in Northern Virginia, the nights have been chillier than expected with almost all of the contents from my linen closet outside, most nights, creating ghostly images floating through the garden beds and rising out of their pots in the early morning hours.  Wait a minute-- is that an apparition of my dear departed grandmother, Helga Charlotta, checking out the tea tables?  Of course not!  It's just Chris setting cups and saucers and gathering flowers for centerpieces as Friday, which was sunny, cool and blustery, moved into cloudy and raw Saturday when the temperature never rose above 47 degrees.  In fact, it was so cool and damp, we set out small heaters to warm the "tea toatlers" feet as they sipped their cups of Darjeeling and nibbled on scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

Iris in my garden.

Iris in my garden

Petunias in my garden.

Kevin (the prodigal son), Chris and Lara...quite a nice looking trio, if I do say so!

The iris blooming in the gardens seemed definitely interested in all the activity from uncovering plants to inquisitive and friendly garden visitors as the petunias talked amongst themselves taking bets on when the warmer weather would return.  As it turns out, we didn't have to wait long.  In any case, Sunday was an absolutely spectacular day, after all was said and done, including Virginia Garden Week.  We went and had lunch with the prodigal son and his lovely girlfriend, Lara, just before Chris flew back to to her home in Wisconsin and, I think, a much more sane life than this gardening business.  Let's look forward to May flowers with maybe some much needed April showers thrown in for good measure since they were slow in coming this last month and we can dream of next year when we will have our Virginia Garden Week "do-over."