Sod’s Law

I’m slightly cheating here as I’m away and my neighbour sent me this photo. I planted a promising looking peony tuber two years ago, last year there were numerous healthy leaves and a few buds that came to nothing. This year, however, has been a different matter - lots of tightly packed buds appeared a couple of weeks ago. When did they decide to bloom? The day after I left for the south coast. How typical is that?!