Peaking too soon?

There are plants and signs for every season in Achiltibuie: we start the year with snow drops, then early primroses. Tons of daffodils in April, rhododendron in June, followed by the flimsy plumes of bog cotton. The heather is in bloom by August. But these past weeks have been so gloriously summerlike that one rhododendron has peaked too early! I was so surprised to see this bundle of flowers last week in the garden.

But the walls of daffodils are telling a different story: it is still spring after all. And there will be time for more rhododendron flowering later in the year.