Yesterday the purple iris, today the daffodils. Spring has really sprung.
Psych! Actually, I bought this potted daffodil in bud at the grocery store yesterday. This morning two sunny flowers graced my table.

We enjoyed a high of 80 degrees today, sunny with no wind. Perfect. I spent most of the day in the garden, removing a too-narrow, homemade copper arbor that always felt overgrown and close. Constructed of 8 vertical copper pipes anchored by sunken rebar, wired together on the sides and top with various thicknesses of copper wire, the arbor was my attempt to copy a beautiful one I’d seen on a garden tour in Decatur, Georgia. But something was lost in translation, and mine looked spindly and, well, homemade.
It was soon cloaked with star jasmine and butterfly vine, but somehow that looked even worse. Hulking over a narrow, granite walkway to the greenhouse, the arbor was only a few inches wider than the path, and it looked tall and skinny. Once the vines filled in, it became even narrower, to the point that I felt I had to tuck in my elbows to pass through. Even worse, the top had begun to sag under the weight of the evergreen vines.
Today I tried experimental reconstructive surgery. I hacked the vines back to 3 feet on each side. With a hacksaw, I cut the 8 copper pipes to that height as well, removing the top of the arbor in the process. Now it’s a copper gateway of sorts. It’ll still be a hassle to keep the vines in bounds—and they may hate the height restriction I’m planning to subject them to—but already the path feels more open and, I don’t know, breathable. I’m still trying to decide whether I like the new “gate.” I’ll try to remember to post a photo of my experiment tomorrow.
A north wind will blow in early tomorrow, dropping temps into the mid-50s. A blustery day is predicted. That sounds good too.