My Mom's Hands

 
" My mom's hands are busy, and restless. During my childhood they were often covered in all purpose flour or garden soil. (How many of us have internalized an image of that classic gesture: our mother wiping her hands on a kitchen towel?) Mom also sewed, played the piano, made crafts and squeezed music out of the accordion. Year after year, her green thumbs coaxed sweet peas, gladiolas and mammoth sunflowers to burst forth from the dry, cracked prairie soil. Her hands are strong, feminine, nurturing, and gentle."
--from These Hands are Our Hands, a chapbook by Lori Weidenhammer

I was so pleased that yesterday mom and I could stroll through the Laburnum Walk at VanDusen Gardens while it is blooming. I was also very grateful that mom and dad and I got to look at bees under the microscope as we dropped in on the Environmental Youth Alliance's citizen science program.
 

One day I heard a visitor to the gardens complaining that he had not seen an arbutus tree in VanDusen botanical gardens. Dude, they are here before you even get into the gardens and this little one is blooming its heart out.

And here's one of my favorite native mid spring bee plants, the blue camas. The last of the mason bees are feeding on these and the native lupins. I'm so happy to see them here. Hope you all had a great Mother's Day.