Old guy from Civ

Meet the old guy from the Civ intro. I've been playing this game so much since I got it a couple of months ago that I feel like I know him really well - I always know what he's going to say next. lol

Dahlia shoots

We pulled all the dahlia tubers out yesterday and there's good growth on all of them. woohoo!

Blooms

The only blooms I can find are in Judy's garden!

Drumsticks

My drumstick primroses are opening nicely but the stalks are short this year, in all the patches. That stump behind them has some pretty cool lichen growing on it - that'll be another picture.

The Collection

The numbers are growing!

Purple carpet

The aubrieta in Kelly's garden is always the first to colour up. We've had overcast skies for a few days now - sun tomorrow will open a bunch of blooms.

Pin curls

I was Brittney's guinea pig while she practiced on me this evening. It was a warm-up for Friday afternoon when I get to be an official guinea pig over at the hair school.

Got Milk?

Since I haven't been to bed yet, it is still theoretically yesterday :)

Looking Glass

'Looking Glass' is such an awesome brunnera - shimmery!

Paper Bead Testing

These are the tests. The little tan set are the standard magazine page size. The oranges are using Rolling Stone lengthwise with the staples taken out and the greens/purples are variations on using double strips with different cuts. Only the little tan set are finished with semi-gloss, the rest are all high gloss.

Fuzzy ferns

Fuzzy little guys - cinnamon ferns.

Paper Beads

The last of the beads from today are drying. We got a little carried away and spent the whole afternoon making them but we had a great time! This batch is our test of the satin finish. All the other batches had high gloss finish. The finish is the time consuming part.

Golden touch

I'd have to look up the name but this sedum was a late addition to the rock garden last fall. It seems to like it there!

Jack Frost

This beautiful Jack Frost brunnera is hiding on the east side of the house. None of the Jack Frosts we bought ever survived to next season. This came from stray seed I guess and was a surprise 3 years ago. I'm afraid to move it since it seems to be doing fine where it is.

This is not a blog

It's a clog! The order of the day here seems to be plumbing!

Recycling

These have been sitting on the deck since we had all the new ones put in last fall and someone came along and asked me for them! LOL! Guess they won't be sitting here much longer :)

Lots of rock

When you walk down out of the woods behind our place, at first glance you might think you've wandered into an old graveyard. So many trees back there, it's hard to get a shot from further up the hill.

Winter Again

See what I mean? Winter is back in zone 3. Cold enough today for icicles to form. Plants are still hanging on out there though.

Snow Day

This was yesterday's photograph but it could have been from today. Both days were the same. Today was a little colder and little less snow but equally grey!

New clematis homes

OK maybe this is going a bit overboard but these twirly thingies work awesome for the clematis that don't get overly long. We'll see how it works this summer for some of these other clematis. Kelly looks like he's squatting in his yuccas down in the back :)

Head, shoulders, feet

Head, shoulders, feet... he's missing all the essential male parts. haha

(Again, photo taken yesterday!)

Delphinium and Jenny

 

All the groundcovers are coming up but the delphinium are among only a few perennials starting to show up. This creeping jenny and delphinium pair are next to Benedict in the sideyard.

Ready to pop

They are waiting for sun just like me!
(pink chionodoxa)

Tulips and Dandelions

The Zurel are the first tulips coming up along the drive in the sun gardens. The garden is starting to fill up with tulips and dandelion. They are both everywhere! I really need to get outside and deal with the dandelion.

Before hostas

Looks pretty barren with no hostas. It'll look much better in the summer.

(I keep taking photos and forgetting to post them!)

Grandbaby Days

Lily was visiting us here today. She is sleeping now and her Daddy is in visiting her Mommy. She is about an hour off her schedule so Sean will have to work on that tomorrow. He has the next two days off so Miles and I are going to get the yard cleaned up while we have no kids. I hope the weather gets a bit warmer or at least less windy!

Tick Season Starts!

 

...and so it begins! Ugh!!!

Purple crocus hiding

Every year I tell myself to move this patch because the false cypress is getting bigger and drowning them out. I guess that's something I need to do as soon as they're done blooming. (Took this shot yesterday and then went to bed without posting!)

Insights

This was supposed to be my photo for yesterday but I am again, a day behind. Seems I can't catch up to anything these days! It is Nicholas' strength ball to help his joints. It reminded me of you when I saw it on the counter :)

Carcassonne

We wore out our Catan game and this is our new past time. There's also a bag of tiles which I didn't include in the picture - you build the board as you play. It's a great 2-person game.

Summer's Days

 

What do you know, it is before midnight and I am posting an outside, daylight photo. That must mean I am caught up! Summer, using the rocks for a pillow and hanging out with Hannah. +5 here today and the snow is almost all gone again. I hope it stays that way because I noticed dandelions in the garden. I need a warm afternoon to deal with them. The little green patch sticking up between the rocks turned out to be tarda. They also turned out to be in the circle beside the rhubarb. I don't have a great eye for distance from the window I guess.

The next day

The lungwort blooms survived the burying in snow this morning.

Long Time Coming

Well, I look like I am running a day behind but one of these days I'll get both up in the same sleepless stretch and catch up to myself ! It only took 8 years but last week I put curtains up in the dining room. White lace because I wanted the light to come through, the birds to stop flying into the windows and I had them laying around already here. Funny thing is, Gordon came for Easter dinner tonight and these lace curtains used to belong to him. They were in his dining room and stairway for almost 7 years and he did not even recognize them. We are buried in snow again so it was too depressing to take any photos outside. All I did outside today was shovel.



Early bloomer

David Ward lungwort

Unfortunately these little blooms might be under snow by tomorrow morning! This lungwort is definitely one of the early bloomers in my garden and now that it's started, it'll bloom for a month or more.

Kitty in the Window

Well, I haven't been to bed since I woke up so it is still officially today :) We had a sleet storm today that turned into a hail storm and the roads were horrible when I drove home from the city. Jake sat in the window, wanting to go outside, until it stopped. It didn't last long but it was bad. Our power went out for a couple of hours.

Giant whites

I've dug these up and moved them around so many times that I have 6 or 7 patches. Nice to have crocuses blooming for Easter!

Needing sleep!

Lily has been here all week. You can't see her because she is in bed now but she is often in her excersaucer. lol! I am wiped out, off to bed now. Tomorrow Sean is off work so I will have some time to be on the computer and out with the camera.

Inside pine

My mother gave me this Norfolk Island Pine a couple of years ago. I had always admired it at her place. So I already know it needs a lot of water but taking this picture inspired me to find out a little more about it. Here's what was interesting:

• Araucaria heterophylla is a distinctive conifer, a member of the ancient and now disjointedly distributed family Araucariaceae
• it is not a true pine
• the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia
• the trees grow to a height of 50–65m - NOT IN MY LIVING ROOM!

Closet purge

This is what happens when you hire a wardrobe consultant. Not all of this is going but probably 80% is. I've been hanging onto stuff from when I was in Ontario and lots of stuff that's waaaay too big. The shopping trip is next week :)

Hannah

Hannah thinks she is a dog. It is hard to get a shot that isn't a little blurry because she is always on the move and she follows me everywhere outside. She particularly likes to hang out with Moxie outside. She does not like cats. She really does think she is a dog... or she wants to be a dog.

Romeo was sleeping

He's not very fond of the flash but he didn't get up and run away.

Tarda Tulip!

The red gives them away for sure... the tarda are coming up. Looks like we are not two weeks behind the city this year. Very cool.

Drumstick buds

These remind me of brussell sprouts when they're first coming up - buds of my drumstick primroses.

Clean sweep

Where did all the leaves go? Only my husband sweeps up the forest. Now if we could just get the lawn to look so pristine.

Starting Over with Sedum

 

Welcome back to me! lol. Starting over with sedum. The green is trying to poke through from under the stepping stone top step. There are other things up as well but this is the furthest along today.