What have we here?

So I was out in the yard this afternoon, thinking to pull out some of the rampant weeds from the front flower patch, and I started in around the hatch to the water meter, when I heard this loud screeching-sort of sound. I though it was some large bird, hidden in the pine tree. It kept calling, and it was really close, but I couldn't spot it through the dense foliage.

Then I looked down.

I have hedgehogs! I was practically standing on them.

They're so cuuuuuute!

And my gosh, what a racket.

There are at least three, possibly more. They like the front yard quite a lot, it seems, which is a good enough reason for me to leave it alone. Well, I did pull out most of the vines that are beginning to strangle the roses. Can't have that. But the low-growing stuff I figured I wouldn't sweat.

Hedgehogs!

The cats were right there, and feigned not to notice the prickly little guys.

Oh, yes, the much-anticipated cherries are out. There aren't that many after all - the tree at the back has about none, and the one at the front is very lightly covered but as it's a large tree that's still 6 pots of jam already put up, and a quart of dried ones, and as many as I can gobble down before it rains tomorrow and they all explode.

Nearly time.

I see them up there!

Just a few days away, now.

The birds are already digging in.

I am ready

Whacking back the beast

Less than 2 months since the buds became visible in the dirt, with all the other plants in the garden just getting started, the monster is already set for its first trim.

 Go for it, Laars.

A pie-worth of stalks later, and I've meerly thinned it out enough to see two additional flower stalks about  burst onto the scene.

Going strong

Just in case you thought it had gone away, or regressed: No. It's headed for the biggest rhubarb ever. A mere 10 days from the last post, and already you could make a couple of pies.