May started with a downpour of rain, so much that we had almost 54 mm of rain in a few hours. The weather has been chilly but at least there was a sunny day before the next round of downpours arrive later this evening.
On the rainy days I did some reading. A new series, The Scottish Bookshop Mystery, was started and the first two books have been read. Delany Nichols has moved from Kansas to work in a bookstore Edinburgh Scotland and gets involved in solving various book related mysteries. I also read a couple more books on the Bibliophile series.
The rain is really making everything grow and grow. It is lovely to watch all the shades of green emerge on the trees. I was itching to get outside and try out some new pruners I was asked to test. These are Black and Decker pruners that work on a charged lithium battery. I did read the directions before using but had to check back through them to find out how to get them to cut. It was just a matter of getting my fingers co-ordinated and pushing the buttons properly.
After a couple of clumsy cuts I got the hang of it and was quickly trimming the shrubs and it didn’t take me long to get a pile of branches and twigs.
They cut through a fair sized branch with ease, up to 1.25 cm or 1/2 inch. No extra force needed at all. This turns out to be a good thing for my arthritic hands. The chromium coated blades are really sharp and were perfect for my various shrubs of burning bush, nine bark, flowering plum, spirea, wegelia and potentilla.
If you are looking for a new cordless pruner that is easy to use this is one that I recommend and it can be purchased in many Canadian stores. Is it just me or do the pruners resemble a creature in the pictures? I can see the mouth (blades) and eye (screw). I’ll have to give it a name … how about Snipper? Do you have a good name for my new pruners which will be getting lots more action once the rain moves out of the area.
The wren continues to build nests in a couple of different birdhouses. I wonder if he/she is using some of the twigs from all my trimming. Probably not as the ones they are using are a lot smaller.
Rainy days are good for repairing things so the faded ladybug got some new paint and a metal butterfly got some repairs. In between the rain I did little jobs outside. The owl found a new home, the Sinkville miniature garden got all set up for another year, and some planters were filled with some hardy succulents.
I’ve got the peas already to plant but I’m holding off till the next bout of heavy rain passes, perhaps up to another 70 mm.
I’m not complaining about the rain, even though it might sound that way. But after such dry, dry conditions last year we really need the water for the fields, plants and wells. But with so much coming down all at once it is causing some very high water levels which is leading to localized flooding.
Stay dry and think gardening.
