Buffy’s allergies were getting the best of her. She kept shaking her head and chewing her paw. She got a shot, some pills and a bottle of ear drops, the first drops instilled by the vet assistant, Lucas. She loves Lucas.

When I got in the car to make another trip to town later, Buffy tried to get in, too. I think she feels so much better she wanted to go back to the vet, usually a fearsome thing for her.

Out and about, I found a tulip leaf. There have been no tulips here in years. Such a surprise to find a tulip that survived voles and tulip fire. It will never bloom again but I hadn’t the heart to dig it up. Poppies are up in the lawn. I hope we can mow around them until they bloom.

I’m seeing plants of the tiny veronica that comes up here, weedy but cute. Anything with blue flowers, I let grow.

Dollar Tree photo

Dollar Tree had ceramic cache pots in red, orange, green and yellow. I wondered if there were aqua or blue or white and somebody bought them all? I looked online. These are the only colors. I wonder who decides the colors?

These require a liner so the inner pot can be taken out for watering, or a hole drilled. I just use them as cache pots. Three yellow and three green were all I bought. Their thin plastic pots that are 6/$1 fit perfectly as liners.

Iberis on the left, Sweet Alyssum on the right, both blooming now.

I took 6 cuttings of Iberis today. I may take 6 more tomorrow. I’ve kept candytuft going since 1973 when Martha Morrison shared cuttings. Down to two plants, I should have candytuft everywhere. It requires little care, it blooms from February to summer if the plants are sheared after first bloom. It’s evergreen, perfect for the front of a bed.

I bought Sweet Alyssum seeds today. One plant just spreads out into a froth of white blossoms and it lasts a long time, not perennial like Iberis, but through a couple of seasons at least and often reseeds.