We're coming up on the few days that are known in France as « les saints de glace » — "the ice saints' days." In Catholic tradition, every day of the year is dedicated to a saint. The "ice saints" — Saint Mamert, Saint Pancras, and Saint Servatius — are celebrated on May 11, 12, and 13. According to popular wisdom, those are the last days on which there is a danger of frost.
So in about a week we can start setting plants out in the vegetable garden. That's if it doesn't start raining too much. I have to till the soil in the garden plot one more time this week. Tomato and other seedlings are doing very well in the greenhouse.
Meanwhile, there are flowers all around. Irises, for example, are blooming.
And little bell flowers (campanules), which are also perennials here. It has now rained enough that everything is very green, with these splashes of color.
In my country we are going to have cold days so you are right about Saints
ReplyDeleteThe early warm spell in March and April got the vineyards sprouting, but then we had a frost. Some entire vineyards are brown, while others right next to them are fatly leafed out. Different cépages withstood the cold differently. It's very sad to see so much brown.
ReplyDeleteSame here. Some cépages leaf out and bloom earlier, some later. Some parcels of vines are beautiful right now, but others are burnt to a crisp by the freezing temperatures we had last month.
DeleteWhat a gorgeous iris photo, Ken!
ReplyDeleteWhile living in NY, I hated this ... that warm couple of sunny days that made you think the longest winter known to man was over ... and then it got cold again ..or worse, snowed.
ReplyDeleteIris are my favorite flower ... bearded iris .. The Japanese ones are pretty but don't have the drama of a big purple bearded Iris. :)
What a lovely iris flower!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this has already been said here, but we were relieved to see Le Pen get a drubbing Sunday.