Voyez-vous les prunes?
The prunus tree in our back yard is in full bloom right now. Prunus is a genus of flowering trees that includes 340 species,according to the Wikipedia article about them. Just to name a few: plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. The one we have in the back yard is an ornamental plant that doesn't produce any fruit.
The last picture in this post shows the trunk of a fir tree whose trunk was covered in ivy until a few days ago. We had a very wet winter that encouraged its growth. I stripped all the ivy off this past week, hoping that the ivy that grows up into the tree branches will now die back. I don't climb on ladders much any more.
I took these photos with my Samsung smart phone's camera.
Above right: If anybody has a suggestion about how I get the ivy off the exterior walls of our garden shed, I'd love to hear it. The walls are coated in a rough render that can really tear up your hands. We're having new shutters put on the shed window soon. Above left, a springtime sunrise.
Above right, a better picture of the Mahonia plant than the one I posted a few days ago. This one is in our hedge, not the neighors'. Above left, you can see how high the grass is growing. The riding mower's battery has failed. We are expecting a new one to arrive today or tomorrow.
Above: potted succulents. Donkey tails and hens and chicks.
On Saturday, our part-time neighbors who live in Blois came down here to mow the grass at their country house across the street from us. In other words, spring has officially started... finally. That's their country house in the picture above, and a picture of Natasha admiring, or at least contemplating the cut grass. The neighbors' property is about twice as big as ours.
So yesterday, Walt got our mower out of the garage to try to get it running. He succeeded, after having to figure out how to pump up the mower's two front tires. We had bought a compressor that runs off a car battery last year, but never tried to use it. Here was the occasion to do so; both the front tires were nearly flat. After tinkering with it for 20 minutes or so, we got it going. The next step was to re-install the mower's battery, which is removed at the end of the mowing season and put in storage. That went well. By late afternoon, Walt was able to mow about one-third of our (tall) grass. The ground had dried out enough for him to be able to mow without making too many ruts. We have about half an acre of land.
All these photos are ones I took with my Lumix ZS8 camera a couple of days ago, with the exception of the photo of the lawnmower. For that one, I used my Samsung smart phone. We bought the mower last year, so it's still new to us.
By the way, not only has the grass been growing, but so have the leaf buds on the grape vines in the vineyard out behind our back gate. That's another sign that spring has finally sprung. It was almost hot outside when I went out for a walk with Tasha yesterday afternoon.
By the way, yesterday, I did some research in my photo archives to see how many photos I took with the ZS1 camera after I bought it in 2010. In that year, I took about 7,750 photos with the ZS1. In 2011, I took more than 8,500 photos with it. And in 2012, I took more than 4,000. I bought the ZS8 that year and it became my go-to camera.
Looking at these photos, I realize how different early April in 2011 was from early April 2025. Everything having to do with flowering plants is happening later this year. That's despite the fact that the high temperature yesterday, under hazy skies, was about 70ºF. Today it's supposed to be closer to 75ºF.
Yesterday I went to see our American friends who live about five miles upriver on the Cher from us. We talked about the state of our springtime and commiserated. They are great gardeners, but this year they've hardly been able to start yet. The ground is too mushy to till or to mow over there, just as it is here. We've had an invasion of moles, so you have to be careful where you step when you go outdoors or you might break a leg... or your neck. 
