First bee photo of the year

The trees in the back are in full blossom. There's been a few bees around but I think they know it's early yet. Still, one was sniffing around what I think is the cherry tree, and I managed to get a good shot of it. I'm not as close as I'd like to be, but there will be all summer for that. Stay tuned.

It's the beginning of another 4 day weekend for both of us, which is pretty rare. There is much gardening planned. Linda just got a box of more lilies, and has been contemplating where to put them. Plus 4 more peonies. And a bunch of bedding out plants that I think will mostly go in the lodge window boxes and the various planter pots.

I want to get a layer of stain along the top of the fence to keep the worst of the weather off. This should be interesting. I was up there pressure washing it last weekend. If it was going to be visible I might go back and do a better job on parts of it, but nobody will ever see it.

If I could count on this Alleum blossom holding still, I'd love to time lapse it. You can see it's just on the verge of exploding. Stay tuned.

I think Linda's work has finally had it sink in that she will be out of there very soon. It's getting frantic. I suspect she's going to collapse in a heap for the first few days of retirement. My work contract is well in hand. I'm waiting for other people to do some stuff, then I'll be busy, then I'll be done. There are some preliminary discussions about involving me in another related project later this year, but we'll see how that pans out.

The swim has been sort of sucky the last month or so. I'm not sure why. Cranky shoulders, maybe in sympathy with the cranky hams. Or maybe it's the hip bone connected to the thigh bone thing. But where a slow 500 m has been about it for the last little while, I was about 600 m in before I noticed, and finished off 1000 m in 18:50, and that's with a parachute pants floatie holding me up while he tried to decide if he was going to stand in my way in the lane, or go somewhere else. He went elsewhere. Then it was 500 m backstroke. All that was after a 20 minute water run in the dive tank. All in all a great way to start the day.