A little spring cleaning

Meow!

You can see my newest crochet project next to Ginger. :)

My lemon zest petunia is doing very well!

A bluebonnet has GOT to be a variety of lupine, because look at the detail on this baby. (I was finally successful with a zoom shot!)

I really just can't believe its foliage.

It's a Las Vegas bud!

Can you see Elphaba in the window?

What an evil look! Her left eye is even squinty!

Mom, I know you love columbines, so this one's for you! It's called Spring Magic Rose and White.

And there she is, with a monster hand!

My Lysimachia Alexander has given birth to an albino variety. Isn't that weird?

And there's also a bud on Trop Jaloux! (I've decided that's the name of my purple-and-white iris. I got it from an Edith Piaf song. hehe)

Firebreather is going to go crazy!

I tried putting my Sarah Bernhardt peony against the Kerry sedum for better focus, or at least a better view than against brown soil. What say you?

Tidal Wave petunia is still looking good!

Both of my shastas are trying to open up.

Now get a load of this. Next to the grape hyacinth, it looks like a big daylily is coming up, plus the two orientals coming up by the garden marker. Woohoo! (That's a wilting hyacinth in the background that I bought wilting and planted for next season.)

No, my bleeding hearts are not actually multiplying. I added a white one there on the left, and it's HUGE.

I just love taking close-up pictures of them!

There's the white one!

Eee! My new pink one hasn't really bloomed all that much. Maybe it tired itself out at the nursery.

The hostas are starting to look like hostas.

The creeping phlox is opening up.

I was too late to get a picture of our cherry trees in their prime this year, but the sunlight in the blossoms is pretty.

That might be a good background for my computer. :)

I thought my plethora of tulips was starting to fade, but they're standing back up again.

Granny's dianthus is looking ready to go.

Tiny Hope isn't joking around. Look at all those buds!

Thursday Blues

Well, I was supposed to take a friend to her surgery today so that her normal ride could attend something else. I stopped at CVS to get some cough drops so that I didn't hack up a lung and require some surgery of my own. I was standing at the cash register and all of a sudden I came very very close to blacking out. So in the end my friend had to use her other ride anyway, and my husband had to come rescue me so that I could sleep until 1:15pm. Fun fun.

Here's that cyclamen I keep talking about. Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors.

And here's my beautiful new African violet! It looks like it has two pure white "upper" petals and three "lower petals" with big magenta blotches. I just love it!

In other news, I've been trying out new crocheted afghan blocks, and I met with one whose pattern made no sense to me. So I was left with this little finished circle. Well, naturally, Dan found it.

So now the David has alternately a beret...

...and a rockin' yarmulke. Which we figure is appropriate, since King David was Jewish. :)

Those April Showers...

Well, at least they should bring flowers, right?

I love Dan's face in this. And how Ginger is completely uninterested in playing.

My first hibiscus bloom of the season. Sorry it's so blurry -- stupid camera!

Dan put a new door on the shed he bought last fall. And we wasted no time in filling it up with stuff!

You can still see the remnants of a temporary tattoo DC gave him on his inner right forearm.

All of my gardening things! He also took out a shelf that divided the entire thing into upper and lower. There were two doors (top and bottom) when we got it, too. Thank goodness for my own personal handyman!

Tulips pushing up through the Dusty Miller, which actually still looks pretty good.

Next time I'll know to bring in my ceramic garden markers for the winter. :( My "Keep Off the Dirigible Plums" HP allusion is ruined! Anna, would you like to make me a replacement? I have a birthday coming up, you know. ;)

Irises and sedum peeking through!

I think this is the lysimachia, but it looks like sedum coming up! I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Two other things coming back up that are looking very interesting. I especially love the second one, which looks almost like a red sedum!

So hilarious!

My third baby blanket!

How do your felines grow?

Dan and his adoring girls.

Sorry I've been gone so long! It's not really very inspiring to update a gardening blog when it's completely snowy outside and everything is dead. Sorry!

But our Elphaba and Ginger are still doing well!

They love each other.

And bottle caps.

Who, me?

They're still clawing things they shouldn't.

They're still "His and Hers" cats. ;)

In other news, we said goodbye to our trusty free ugly couch.

And replaced it with a gorgeous new find from Art Van.

Elphie approves.

I got some beautiful tulips from My First Valentine. :)

And while we were on vacation in Texas visiting everyone in the world, Mom taught me how to crochet squares for a baby blanket. The end result is a surprise for one of Dan's cousins, who is due in August. :)

Kind of blurry, sorry!

And I'm starting on another one for a friend. It will be checkerboard white and yellow.