Easter Blessings

Color has returned to the garden after the long, white winter.
We have daffodils blooming - a blessing indeed!

The warmth of the sun during the past 4 days has caused the blooms of spring bulbs to burst open!

 We've had glorious summery days since Thursday, April 1st, with temperatures reaching into the low 80's (approx. 27ºC) on Friday and Saturday...warm enough to open doors and windows! Sheer bliss!
It's been a very long time since we've felt air warmed to 80ºF and been able to enjoy working outside with the sunshine on our shoulders.

I've spent some time working in the garden, and oh, those muscles were stiff and sore the first day after being used very little for 5 months! But my back is feeling much better now and I'm quickly adjusting. It feels so good to be out in the fresh air, digging in the dirt!

These beauties were the first to open in the Rose-Clematis Garden.

A few clumps of golden yellow King Alfreds are blooming in the Top Driveway Garden.

And down in the Lilac garden in the front yard Hannah explores as she follows me around.

Scilla Siberica (Siberian Squill) blooms beside the daffodils.

They're tiny but oh, so pretty in their sweet blue bonnets.

Their color goes beautifully with the bright yellow of the daffs.

The snowdrops have lasted remarkably well. Some of the clumps are finishing now but there are more beginning to open in other parts of the garden.

I'm thrilled with the little Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow) blooms in The Rock Garden down by the road.

Bees have been busy! This one is buried bottoms up in the purple crocuses, which I finally managed to catch open for a photo op on April 1st after waiting a week while they stayed tightly closed to the gloomy weather.

Jasmine is watching that bee!

She thinks it might like to play...but no.

Hannah comes to see what's going on....

Thankfully, the bee is much too busy to bother with a couple of curious kitties.

 

We are blessed indeed to have a risen Savior!

(the Easter lily blooms in July in my garden. This photo is from summer 2009)

I hope you all had a very happy and blessed Easter.

Expanding Friendships Through Blotanical

Many of you have already discovered Blotanical, the relatively new website that is bringing garden bloggers' together all over the globe. If you love to see what's growing and blooming in other people's gardens then you'll find an endless supply of fascinating posts here.

Stuart Robinson is the young man responsible for putting it all together. He actually hatched the basic idea well over a year ago, and has been working to build and expand the site since then, until it has developed into a grand plan that seems to be working beautifully.

I'm so pleased to have recently 'met' lots of new gardening friends - some close by in my home state of New York, some half-way around the world in my native country, Australia, and others from Canada, the UK and Europe. There are also plenty of other gardeners in countries I've yet to explore - New Zealand, Africa, South America and Asia.

It's exciting to see the amount of people participating, and fun to read about the quirks and obsessions we have in common. I sit here smiling and nodding my head, and feeling "normal", knowing there are so many others out there who share the idiosyncrasies of a gardener's character.....but above all else, that irresistable urge to grow as much as we possibly can!

Stuart has written several helpful articles, posted under the "News" tab, which explain a few things about Blotanical and how to maneuver around the site. Under each of the tabs on the home page there are sub headings which give you lots of choices.

For instance under the "Search Blogs" tab you have a choice of doing a Google search for information under "Search Blogging Content", or skimming through a list of blogs under "Search Blogger's Location". And if you want to add a Blotanical button or widget to your blog, you can find that here as well under "Banners and Gadgets".

Under the "Picks" tab you'll find a list of the current 200 posts of all the members. I use it, in addition to my feed reader, to find the newest posts of my favorite blogging friends, and to meet new gardeners from all over.

You get your own little "plot" and can choose a list of your favorite bloggers. To encourage you to use the site, there's a point system which rewards you for logging in, picking posts, and a few other activities. You can also chat with other members via messages. Your blog doesn't have to be exclusively about gardening. Most of us post about our everyday lives, as well as our gardens.

The best way to learn to use the site is to just keep clicking your way around! And if you have a question there's a "Help" tab where Stuart is quick to provide you with answers. Or you can send a message to a fellow member to find plenty of helpful advise.

If you're 'just a little obsessed with gardening' then you're really going to enjoy yourself at Blotanical :)

Stuart once remarked to me in an e-mail, after starting a third blog (he has one about lawn care as well as his Gardening tips and ideas, and used to have a financial advisory blog) that he started the lawn care blog because he found he was getting far too much sleep! :)

I often wonder how he fits sleep into his busy schedule, especially these days. Yes, he does have a day job, a young family, and a garden of his own!

You're doing a great job Stuart, and we all very much appreciate it, but don't overdo, and do take a little time for yourself now and then. OK?

Easter lilies in church on Easter Sunday Jesus never fails

Springing into Easter!

Doesn't it seem strange to have Good Friday fall on the day after Spring begins?

Last year the first day of Spring was March 21st, and 16 days later we had Good Friday. Easter is an early bird this year!

These delightful daffodils have now brightened the house for the third week! I put them out on our unheated, covered side porch, where we can see them through the kitchen windows, and at least half of them are still looking good. It's like keeping them in the refrigerator.

We've had wintery weather for most of the week, with a frigid wind blowing snow horizonally across the landscape these past couple of days, and rain on Wednesday. There've been short periods of sunshine, but it's hard to remember them....they seem so few and far between. However, as we hear the news of people drowning in floods, and others suffering damage to their homes in the southern part of the country our hearts go out to these families, and we count our blessings.

On Saint Patrick's Day I found a few more signs of Spring outside. The lilacs are budding in the above photo.....

......and the Maple has pretty red buds too.

This is what the Forsythia looks like. My husband planted 3 of these shrubs about 4 years ago and we've barely seen a bloom yet. We're hoping this will be the year that the bright yellow blooms will announce the arrival of spring. The calendar says it's here, but Mother Nature has other plans apparently, unpredictable prankster that she is.

The red-winged black birds are frequent visitors to the feeders now, and if you enlarge this photo you'll see a female cowbird has joined this group. The males showed up the next day.

I managed to snap a picture just as this male redwing was fluffing his wings, and caught the colors, but unfortunately, not his head.

The grackles arrive shortly after the redwings and want more than their share...or so it seems. They're known as the "bully birds", and are not quite as welcome as the smaller birds. In fact we'd rather they stayed away, but their colors are lovely nonetheless.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal come early in the morning for their breakfast. They're always polite, and don't overstay their welcome :)

The spring flowers in the house are fading, and it's high time for those outdoor blooms to receive some warmer temperatures and sunshine. They need the help to stir themselves and spring into action as they try to catch up with their precocious southern and western cousins.

My dear husband noticed a shaft of sunlight falling across the daffodils on St. Patty's Day (yes, we had a bit of sunshine on Monday!) and thought I should take a photo of them. So I did. I'm glad he pointed that out so I didn't miss the moment :)

I hope each and every one of you has a very happy and blessed Easter!

Cheerful Crocus

The crocuses are blooming!

We had a beautiful day last Tuesday and I managed to get out in the garden after work and do some spring clean-up.

What bliss to feel the warm sunshine on my shoulders and smell the fresh air! If nothing else, our long, cold winters make me fully appreciate the warmer weather when it finally comes.

I've been trying out the new camera and having fun with it. There's so much to learn and I'm feeling a bit inadequate. I need to have patience and realize that I can't learn everything at once. How nice it would be to wave a magic wand and know it all immediately!

But perhaps that would take away the fun aspect.

The crocuses were so bright and cheerful on Tuesday, but not so now after several dreary days, with bitterly colds winds and frigid temperatures. It feels like we're back in February! We've had snow flurries for several days, but not enough to accumulate any snow on the ground. Others haven't been so lucky. Apple told me they had a foot of new snow on Friday, and they've had more since, with still more to come tomorrow!

As we headed out into the cold this morning after choir practice a friend remarked that her grandfather used to say, "Spring's caught cold!" A perfect way to put it!

Unlike Tuesday's perky blooms, the poor crocus blossoms and snowdrops are now all drooping and sad, but I've seen them bounce back before.

Hopefully, even though more cold temperatures are predicted, we'll have a little sunshine during the spring break, and the blossoms with perk up again.

There are just a few pure white blossoms

The daffodils are budding and it shouldn't be long before we see their bright, happy yellow faces again. I can't wait!

Ross has been busy putting compost on all the gardens for me. Until this year I've had to do it myself because he was always at work, and therefore, not much got spread around. He used the Bobcat skid-steer loader and got the job done much quicker and easier than I ever could. I hope my plants will express their gratitude by growing like crazy!

I love this little Easter Joke :)

I hope you all have a blessed Easter Sunday and enjoy your time with family and friends.