Rush Hour Traffic!

I think he was headed to the Golden Corral b/c he was in a foul mood and definitely had some low blood sugar! 

Get off my road you perky old man!

What's the Storty Morning Glory?

errr...Hyacinth

I woke up this morning thinking of what a busy weekend we have ahead of us.  My daughter is turning 3 tomorrow and my son is being baptised tomorrow also.  Lots of friends and family in tight knit quarters (not my cup of coffee) so as I came down stairs this morning dreading the day, I look out the window and see this beautiful sight and remembered everything I have to be thankful for!

Now if only I can keep that picture in my mind the rest of the weekend!

Things That Go BLOOM!

Daffodils are blooming all over our yard.  Even some of the ones I planted a few weeks ago are taking off.  I can not wait to see what color they are!

Siberian Iris, I think.  They have only bloomed once since we have lived here.

 

Hyacinth.  I hope this cold snap does not keep them from blooming.  The were covered in rocks and dirt last year and I did not even know they were in the yard.

White Flowering Almond.  I absolutely love these trees.  I have always thought that these trees were white flowering Almonds, but this is the first year they bloomed.  I have 2 a white and a pink.  We had 6 of them around this small pond, but 4 of them died last year in the freeze and I had to take them up.

Stone Crop and Lambs Ear.  I need to move the stone crop and everything else that is in that bed since it will be a few years until I turn it into my rose garden.  And speaking of roses, looky what I found growing in the area I want to make a rose garden...

How convenient...

It is amazing what you will find around this house when you clean out the beds!  I can not wait to see what all unfolds around here!

Can You Add a Bit More to My Plate Please?

This coming weekend our daughter is turning 3 (she wants a princess bike and to be bigger)...yea...we are having a friend party at Pump it Up with 20-30 family and friends....yea...and to top it all off we are having our son baptised and then having 20-25 family members to our house for brunch...yea...oh yea, and somewhere in there we have a diner with the in-laws for birthday parties.
So all of this news is awesome, but I have so much on my plate right now.  The bathroom renovation is taking a bit longer than expected,  spring came and went in the matter of 3 days (it was 70 3 days ago and today it was 32 when I woke up), my wife and mother-in-law surprised me with a bucket of paint yesterday and said they were going to paint the guest bathroom (and we all know this means I am going to paint the other bathroom and do it BEFORE Saturday!), I still have yard clean up that needs to be done to make the front entrance presentable to company, the dogs have broken part of the fence and it needs mended, the raised beds for the garden need to be prepped, I have a HUGE mouse problem in the garage, and to top it all off our main computer has a really bad Trojan virus and I am having to spend time burning our life (pics, vids, music, recipes) onto CD's so that I can then reformat the computer to make it work again.  I have some really great pics of the plants blooming around the house and would love to share them, but I can not download them on this computer.  So instead, I hope you enjoyed my rant :)
I am going to go eat Oscar's and watch the Bachelor with my wife...yea!

A Walk Around the Yard

This weekend was a beautiful weekend!  I wanted to take some photos to document where I start before the season begins.  So today I present a walk around my yard and some commentary on the many (most 1/2 started due to backyard ADD) project I need to get around to this year.

Area between the garage and house. 

The azalea is doing great but the Cast Iron Plant has seen better days.  This is a zone 7 plant, so the fact that it has made it through 2 winters is awesome!  I do not think the columbine is going to come back though :(

The transplant holly is doing great as are the wigilia and Korean Spice Viburnum are starting to bud and the Linton Rose and Tulips are coming up.

My little Bio-Retention area is growing in nicely

The old garden area.  Not sure what I am going to do with it.  The pond is going to be removed and will probably become a small bio-retention area to collect the water the neighbor is dumping onto my yard from his roof drains...

Hello Iris!

I think they are Siberian Iris, but they only bloomed the first year we moved in.

The burn pile!  It keeps getting bigger!

I think I see Jimmy Hoffa!

I am in the process of making a cut flower garden in this area. This is why I have been requesting wine bottles from all my friends! It may be a 2 year project.

I will hopefully get the old pond moved and a bio-retention area installed there this summer.

The creek bed looking toward 96.  I really need to finish getting the 2 downed trees out of there and remove some of the smaller junk trees to make this area presentable.  I have dreams of wildflowers and grasses here.

Creek bed looking back at the house.  Once again grasses and wildflowers are my dream.  I have about 6 transplanted dogwoods in this area as well.  I would love to blank the entire slope in dogwoods.  Anyone have some saplings I can come dig up? :)

Elaeagnus Pungens.  Planted them at 18" last year.  They will be 5' this time next year and help screen the road!

My new garden area!  I am going to start it at 10'x10' and see if I can get it to grow! (more on that in another post)

 The doodles...

 

Ellison helping me get ready for mulch!