Various before the rain...

I spent most of the day on a variety of outdoor tasks from erecting and placing a new garden bench, pruning back aberrant tree growth, cutting the grass and shredding/mulching the latest batch of pruning materials.  Along the way, I took a few pictures.

The dove tree Davidia involucrata is best known for its flowers. Involucrata means "with a ring of bracts surrounding several flowers".  The large (12–25 cm) bracts occur in pairs at the base of the flowers and perform the function of petals.  On a breezy day, the bracts flutter in the wind like white doves or pinched handkerchiefs, hence the English names for this tree.

It's peony flowering time here in case you hadn't guessed.  Apparently in Japan peonies are a common subject in tattoos, often used along with koi-fish. The peony became a masculine motif, associated with a devil-may-care attitude and disregard for consequence.  Whodathunkit?  It's also Viburnum flowering time.

Our day in the garden ended, as such things always should, with a glass of something sitting in (reasonably) comfortable chairs and wondering about how things come back to life at this time of year.  Our drink of choice today is a semi-sweet raspberry melomel made by yours truly earlier this year...the tartness of the fruit needs a little residual sugar to work properly, at least for me. 

I love this tree in our neighbors garden.  It's the closest to broad tree aspect that we have around here