We've gone into a very cold spell; last night the temps dipped to 35F, tonight is forecast 33F. I brought in my tomato plants from the (unheated) greenhouse and I covered my strawberry bed, which is blossoming nicely. I'm hoping this will be enough to prevent my losing an entire crop of strawberries. I put a double layer of fleece and netting over the berry plants.
Today was a day off. I spent the entire day indoors, working at my job and catching up on Gardeners' World episodes on YouTube.
Yesterday I cleaned up the Mimosa tree near the deck steps, which shades the Jungle Cliff. It did not need much, just a single dead branch to be sawed out and some unruly new shoots pruned off. Then I cleaned up the Korean Dogwood just above the Mimosa, also in the Jungle Cliff. Then the big job: cleaning up the flowering crabapple on the lawn below the Jungle Cliff. It's a beautiful older tree, full of character because when I planted it, I decided not to stake it or train it in any way. Over the years, it's developed an amazing network of branches. Last fall, R took it into his head to "prune" the tree to shape it up. I thought he was only going to take out the tall watersprouts that were coming up from the center top of the tree, but he also cut back a lot of branches to give the tree a rather "mushroom" shape. Not my choice, but not that bad either. ... Until I took a closer look.
First I went thru and removed the long stubs he left everywhere, then I sawed out a single very thick branch that was stone dead. Then it was a lot of up and down the ladder cleaning out a lot more dead stuff. I thinned out the center of the tree a bit, removing the usual: crossed branches, branches growing inward, weirdly shaped branches. I've offered to give R a lesson in tree pruning, but he insists that since he trims our hedges every year, he knows how to do this.
Oh well.
***
Not much else going on. The entire garden is absolutely beautiful. We moved from an amazing display of tulips (where did they all COME FROM???), to now full blossom time: apples, crabapples, pears, bush honeysuckle, autumn olives, lilacs. The fragrance is heavenly. And, for the very first time: My tree form wisteria is blooming! 
That plant has been in place in the Grape Arbor garden for years without ever blooming and I honestly thought I'd got a dud. Last winter I decided to give it one more year and then it would have to go. It must have heard me.
Another "first time bloomer" is the climbing hydrangea on one post of the grape arbor. Again, that has been there for years, growing ever so slowly from a very tiny cutting. This year, I see buds on it for the first time. I'm happy.
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