Every year around this time our younger daughter has to travel on business (she goes to the Cannes Film Festival). She always asks her mother to come over (she lives in Switzerland) to help out with her two small children. So off goes my wife while I stay home and look after the houses and the pets and (most importantly for this post) the gardens. I don’t like gardening much, but I do it because I’m terrified that something important will die and I’ll get blamed for it. Moreover, my responsibilities in this regard have been increasing. First I just had to water the indoor plants (orchids, African violets and the like); then I had to water all of the outside plants too; finally I was tasked with “deadheading” the plants and looking out for caterpillars (they rappel down from our oak trees and wreak have on the roses).

With the advent of modern technology I’m now also expected to send pictures and maybe even videos to prove that I a living up to my responsibilities.

So here are a few flower pictures from the bed down by our dock (with the exception of the rhododendron, which is on our driveway). I’m afraid I only recognize the first one (Lilly of the Valley) and the last one (Rhododendron). I have no idea what the others are.

Rhododendron.