The Epic Saga of the Porch

Peach blossom!

Sorry it's been so long. That's apparently my theme now. But here comes our game of catch-up...!

Dan took a jackhammer to the cement slab of the porch (since the sledgehammer didn't do anything) and divided it into 13 huge pieces that were (just barely) moveable.

There was sand underneath the cement.

Elphaba supervised.

There was a lot of debris.

But don't worry! I rescued most of the plants!

Um, our entryway didn't have any support. Yikes! (Don't worry! Handyman Dan fixed it.)

Gasp! Wonder of wonders, there was an old stone staircase underneath all the cement, cinderblocks, and sand! How cool!

Isn't that spiffy? It was like finding a fossil in the front yard.

Dan and his dad reinforced the living room bay window bump-out. (The metal post that "supported" it before was just stuck into the ground. No concrete, nothing. REEEAL safe.)

Fast forward through many days and weeks of abysmal weather to yesterday: Dan and Garrett put down the flooring of the new deck!

Great picture.

And when they finished, they enjoyed their hard-earned relaxation.

Success!

On the garden front, I had wee small daffodils this year!

I love the burgundy layer when the hostas are coming up.

Dan trimmed the heck out of our newly discovered forsythia and threw the discarded branches on the burn pile, where I took this artsy picture of them.

As always, our magnolia was breathtaking!

Sweet little tulip-looking blooms!

Here are some of my Expatriated Irises.

It turns out there are THREE secret rosebushes in the side yard!

My lone tulip of the year.

My helleborus blew me away this year!

I thought my clematis might have died, but it's exceeding all expectations! Look at the fuzzy white new growth!

And even through all the hardship, I have TWO iris buds! I didn't think I'd get any this year since I was mean enough to move them and thus save their lives.

Actually, I got several tulips this year. But creepily enough, these bloomed without even making it out of the ground. *shudder* Super eerie.

I didn't think the peony tuber that I planted last year was going to do anything, and then this year it knocked my socks off by coming up and thriving! Let's keep going, Sarah Bernhardt!

I think this number is a columbine, but I can't be sure. It's on the other side of the fence, by the Secret Side Yard roses.

Isn't that what it looks like?

Some little violets that haven't made it into the ground yet.

Magnolia blossoms with leaves!

I just love the artsy shots.

My Comte de Chambourd rose, which I bought as a stem with a root last year at Home Depot. Looks good!

It even has a few buds!

Our pretty hedges are blooming. Too bad we'd rather tear them out than deal with them.

My sis with the newest pup in the family, alternately named Uno and Bandit. ;)

Isn't he sweet?!

We wore him OUT.

BLACKTHORN SANG ME HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! And I even got my picture with Fred, the keyboardist/percussionist/flutist. My sis and I have a crush on him.

Clearly, Uncle Dan is the best.

The fam!

Would a post be complete without D?! No, I say!

Daddy's girl.

Also Mama's girl. And sister's girl. haha

My new camera lets me take high-ISO pictures with no flash without taking forever to expose and thus producing huge blurs. I love it because now all my pictures of the girls don't make them look demonic.

Long cat! Look at her cute back paws.

A little bath.

It's Magnolia Time!

I love our magnolia! It's so beautiful.

It's a very unusual shape, and it might be a shrub instead of a tree. I wish it would get bigger.

Look at the little leaves trying to come out!

The man of the house with his new baby! :)

It was a very exciting day in the garden. So I made the rounds with the camera. :) (I just turned over 5,000 pictures taken on my camera... phew!)

I had given up this rosemary for dead. But I'm pretty sure those are buds on the stems.

Happy Returns, making its happy return.

Tulip! I think the leaves look and feel like a sedum. :)

Hemerocallis fulva, the common roadside lily, multiplying like crazy. This is the main clump.

My first dianthus.

Granny's dianthus.

It's so close to opening!

Here's the columbine. Look at the little buds!

This is Russian sage, right? Anyway, it's sneaking up too. It started a little later than the others. I guess I should chop off last year's remains? I wasn't sure earlier, but it seems to be starting over rather than growing off of last year's branches.

My Little Italy and Siloam Red lilies.

I am in love with this Lysimachia now that it's coming back up! It looks much better than when I shoved it into the ground.

This is the white and purple iris, for which I havne't found a name yet.

I've dubbed this my Serrated Sedum. I love that it's just this little mound right now. :)

My other irises and some Kerry sedum. The iris up front, the enormous one, is Princesse Caroline de Monaco. To the right and behind a bit is Before the Storm, and to the left is Las Vegas.

Kerry sedum!

Bleeding Heart is growing really quickly.

The creeping phlox just hibernates and uses the same foliage from last year. (So does the dianthus. I think that's so funny.)

The coral bells are coming back and looking colorful.

A huge plot of Las Vegas irises on the other side of the porch.

This might be my favorite picture that I've taken for a while. It came out so well! My little grape hyacinth.

Tulips!

And these are my two Stella d'Oro lilies that I got on clearance (at the beginning of the season??)! Welcome, me hearties! I started nagging at Dan this morning about a new, extended flowerbed that will be dedicated entirely to lilies -- Stellas will be a prominent feature. A coworker told me that I can come over and clip whatever I want from her extensive garden, so I might not even have to buy all of them! :)

And finally, the nursery set my Stellas in this flat box for the car, and of course Elphaba LOVES it. She immediately set up shop in it. :)