Hey! Who's eating my flowers?

It's the most wonderful time.... of the year (I seem to sing this one a lot, have you noticed? I guess because there are many wonderful times of the year besides Christmas.)

Spring is probably my fave. So much potential!

On unrainy days you'll find me wandering the yard, or just standing and looking for new growth. And sometimes taking pictures of wee things sprouting. And sometimes posting them to Instagram with hashtags #ilovespringmiracles and #everythingsamiracle.

The first thing with more than your basic spring green to show up in my yard (I really shouldn't call green basic after seven months of winter white-grey-brown!) are tiny scille (plural of scilla), or squills. I get a charge out of their tightly-wound little blue buds -- I took this picture last week. It made me think of a little off-kilter earth on Earth Day, waiting to unfurl into deep blue flowers. I love when there's a little sea of them blooming among the autumn leaves that are the mulch in many of my flower beds.

This morning, I went to check on them... and hundreds of little blue flowers were missing! The plants are still there, and the little stems stand with nothing on top! I've been robbed (or rather, my scille have). That means no seeds for next year's bulbs, sigh.

This has never happened before. I mean, maybe a few have been eaten without me noticing, but usually there are hundreds of tiny cobalt blue flowers among my raspberry canes, lilies, and tulips. Finding not a one, I decided to check the front yard, and there I found one solitary scilla with two flowers peeking up. Fearful for its life?

I'm not sure if it's an early spring or a late one as far as squirrels' stomachs are concerned. Or maybe it was the voles and mice in the neighbourhood that ate all those little flowers, as I suspect they're temporary tenants in my leaf and compost bins. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't leave any blue blossoms for their landlady's eyes to enjoy, but hey, if you're starving, beauty comes second.

So next year, if you happen to see me wandering around my yard with a pepper mill, grinding pepper onto some tiny green shoots, please understand that I haven't lost my marbles... I'm just trying to deter a few rodents and save a few little blue scille flowers just for beauty's sake.

Better luck next year!