The Season of Flowers

Don't you just love Spring and then Summer when all the flowers just
come alive?! Our Heavenly Father sure knows how to put on a show!!

 I usually buy quite a few flowers, but this year I have cut
back because my old body just can't handle it all anymore.
I have been having pain in my arms and hands and that doesn't help either.
So it may become weed heaven around here this year. lol.


Isn't this color gorgeous!!??
This is one of the lilac trees that is growing in my yard. We purchased and planted this a
 few years ago and thank God it is still alive. We seem to have an issue with trees living that
we plant so I am counting my blessings. 

It seems to me that she blooms profusely about every other year and the years in between
it has a very few blooms. Do most lilacs do this or maybe just until they get established well?
I don't know, but I am thankful this is a good year.

This is one of my columbines. I also have one that is called:
Grandmothers Bonnet 
that looks exactly like a bonnet, but that one is not blooming yet.
I promise to share when it does.

We planted a small hydrangea plant in this spot that was sent by my sister and her family for Eden's
 funeral last year and now I have an angel and a stone to stand beside it. My daughter gifted the angel
stone to me and I think it is so pretty.  I hope the hydrangea lives! Sometimes I have plants
  that do wonderful for a couple years and for no reason they just don't come back.
 It is weird. Praying that this one survives!

Speaking of...please remember our family next Sunday. {May 21}. It will be one year on that date
since Eden went to heaven and it will be a hard day. I have some simple things planned such
as balloon release etc., but we miss her so very much and so wish she were here. In some ways
it seems like forever ago and others it seems like just yesterday.
She is our beautiful angel Eden Rain.

Isn't this handmade stump neat? I don't remember what the process is called, but I guess you
use rags to make it? Not sure, but I love it.

LOVE this container that my violas are planted in. I purchased this container with the plant in it
at a Spring Show and it is doing wonderful.

This is our second lilac tree/bush. Actually, I have two this color. Isn't it such a soft color?
 I just dug up "starts" from around another bush and replanted and they are doing every bit
as well as the large ones I purchase in a greenhouse.

Some pretty lilacs I brought inside a few weeks ago.
I just can't get enough of them!

What flowers are out at your house? Do you have a green thumb? I would
love to hear about it.
Until next time...Blessings!

Spring in Michigan

SPRING
has finally arrived in Michigan and I am so happy!

If you have ever lived here you know that one day it can be 75 degrees
and the next day we can have snow. ugh.
I hope and pray that the snow is over with for the year.

Lilacs are starting to bloom along with all the other spring flowers.

I just LOVE this time of year when everything is new.

My tiny grape hyacinth.

I love the tiny and delicate size of these beauties.

My pretty pink phlox!

Look at the center of them. So beautiful and perfect. Each and every one.

Isn't it amazing what our creator does?!!

Every spring I look out my kitchen window to see this flowering pear and I laugh.

The trunk is so small compared to the branches of the tree!

We have been told that these snap in high winds very easy because of this,
but so far we haven't lost ours.
If that day ever comes, I will literally sit down and cry!

Pretty violets. We used to find these in the woods whenever we would take walks years ago.
So perfect and delicate.

Lilacs are my favorite springtime flowers, but they wreak havoc
with my sinuses so I can't bring them inside. I can enjoy them out on my
front porch though.

I have dark purple lilacs and this pretty light lavender color. I dug up and planted a
couple starts of  this one maybe five years ago and they have thrived for me.

All I did was stick a shovel in the ground, push back the dirt and stick in the
tiny shoot! I have decided this is the way I must plant from now on because
we have bought trees that we have taken care to dig the hole the right size,
add all the stuff to make the soil right etc and they do not live for us.
Crazy!! 

The plants along the garden path are starting to wake up.
I will say it again:

I LOVE this time of year!

Our forsythia bush is putting on quite a show this year. It is gorgeous and huge.
We moved it several years ago because it was getting way too big in front of
our back porch. I told hubby it would never live since it was already several years old
and well established, but it proved me wrong! YAY for me being wrong. ha!

I hope you all are doing well and I hope to get back to more blogging this year.
Last year was a horrible one and I pray that this year brings many unexpected blessings
from heaven above. We are coming up on the year anniversary since we lost our
granddaughter Eden Rain and that will be a very hard day. Please keep our family
in your prayers if you think about it. God is helping us, but we sure miss her.

The final days of summer

Can you believe that summer is winding down already??   I can't!  It seems once again
that it has just flown by, but I LOVE summer here in Michigan this year.  Not scorching
hot, but beautiful weather for the most part.  We didn't even put in our air conditioners
this year and that is saying something.  Most evenings we even had blankets that we
covered up with instead of laying in bed roasting!  Although, I will say that we
 REALLY
 need rain here...badly!!  The grass is brown and crunchy which does not make
 for pretty photos at all.

I don't think I will ever tire of the chippy , white look.  Will you?   I think it is here to stay
for me.  I do add splashes of color such as pink and aqua every now and then, but I
always wonder what the next "trend" will be. hmm...

I am loving all my outside flowers again this year!  They are doing pretty good even in spite of
the lack of rain.  I have had to run the hose a bit, but not too bad.
 I  am glad that I can capture their beauty every year to share with you.

This is the back deck area this summer.  Yes, I do need to get the blower out and get rid of some leaves
and get out the spray to kill off some weeds and grass, but for the most part it is okay.  The area on the
right of the photo is just covered in tiny white flowers {Sweet Woodruff} in the Spring, but when
summer hits it looks rather bland. I wish the flowers would bloom all summer long!

I love white picket fences and have put them here and there on our property.

Here is one of our kitty's that we "inherited" when my son and his family took off for North Dakota.
They are finally coming around and being very friendly for the most part, but for the first couple
weeks we thought they would never return. ha!

We have two of them, both gray.  They are sisters and they fight like sisters do also! :)
One of them hisses at the other when it is feeding time and I tell them to stop that they
need to share.  We usually end up separating their food bowls. Crazy cats!!

I acquired this vintage can just recently and I love it.  I plopped some fake flowers in
it , but I really need to pick some real ones and take the fake ones out.
{I am a bad blogger...:( }

Up close and personal.  Not sure which one this is.
They are named Merida and Maeve and I can never keep track of who is who.
We need to get one of them a different color of collar so we can tell them apart.
One of them does have a wider face also so that helps sometimes. 

We had to work on this little window house this summer.  It has sat outside for a few years and was showing
the ill effects of the sun , rain and snow so we replaced the "peak" windows and I also gave it a touch up of
paint here and there.  I also added some silverware chimes and a white geranium sitting on an old stool.
Still love it!

I hope you are not tired of seeing my back deck area.  This is where we enter the house.
We rarely use the front door {unless we get locked out for some reason} so this is
the area I love the most. AND most of the time I can't remember what pics I have
shared with you so you may get duplicate posts.

Are you having a great summer? Ready for school to start??

I have been doing a few projects inside the house that has thoroughly exhausted me.
Hopefully I can share those with you soon if I can get some decent photos with this
crazy lighting.

Blessings~

Rolling along...singing a song...

...SIDE BY SIDE!

I would love you to ride along with me today as I share a few more garden pics.
Did you hop on? Okay, here we go!!

Sweet Woodruff and the bicycle just go together, don't you think?

Yes, I got carried away taking bicycle pics. lol

First stop is near the door on the back deck.
This is a very favorite clay pot filled with flowers.

Next, we will pull up along the side of the house to show you all the work I did today.

I am telling you, I worked and worked trying to clean up the flower beds
and getting out the weeds and I am plumb worn out!

I had a garage sale this past Saturday and several people wanted to buy my yard art including
this Welcome to my Garden sign that is painted on an old screen. I told them it was not for sale.

 I also dug up hosta and sold them.
I had a big wheelbarrow full and people actually asked me if I would dig up more! {I didn't}
They sold like hot cakes for 50 cents a clump. I am thinking about going into the hosta business.

We are back to near the door again! We are sure getting a workout. Someone didn't plan
this bicycle trip very well. ha!

We are now riding past some creeping phlox that just keep spreading every year.

 I LOVE this time of year because
the back deck area looks wonderful with all the spring blooms. By mid summer it gets rather
dreary looking though so I have to enjoy it while I can.

Along the way we pass the Sweet Woodruff again...

{Some also wanted to buy this sign!! NOPE...not for sale!}

...and an herb pot that I made this year.

I tried something new by creating a tiered pot assemblage with herbs in each pot.
I thought up this idea all on my own, but I am sure it has been done somewhere before.
 I really like how it turned out.

A person can never have enough Lemon Thyme and it smells wonderful as it wafts
through the air.

We are now riding down the path that is strewn with crab apple blossoms. It smells
wonderful!!!

This was hubby's idea so I obliged him. He saw this basket sitting on the deck {from my last
years stash...it was green moss initially} and hung it on the tree so I planted an impatiens plant in
 it and an ivy plant. Hope it does well. It should because it gets nice shade here.

I hope you enjoyed "rolling" through my gardens today on my white bicycle.  Our ride ended
way too soon, but I do hope that you enjoyed it and that you will visit again soon.

 I have so much more work to do and I am just getting too old and worn out to keep up with all this.
 I may have to yank it all someday and put in stone, but for now I will enjoy the beauty.