It Is Hereby Officially Spring


Hi!  I'm here!
Are you southerners getting tired of all of us northerners gushing about spring?  Probably.  But really, please be patient.  It was just so hard and bad this winter.  It's hard to express unless you were here and now we finally have sunshine and grass and the world feels like a beautiful place again.  We're all just kind of a little giddy at the moment.  It feels so wonderful to have windows open!  And blue skies!  And all the green!  And you can hear birds chirping and the trees are budding!  Not to mention, not having to wear coats.  It changes the whole taking kids out of the house game, right?  It feels so freeing.  We'll calm down soon, promise ;)

Anyway, yes, we're glad it's spring.  Around here there's been a whole lot of getting the outside cleaned up and soaking in all the color and I just wanted to jump in here a moment and capture some of the beauty and goodness happening around here.  Don't color me Pollyanna, there's a whole lot of epsom salt baths and mud and waddling and maybe just a few more hormonal tears as well.  But we'll focus on the beauty for today…sound good?

Oh, on that note, thank you so much for sharing all your intentions and predictions for this new little one!  I'm recording each intention on my fancy list and will be praying for them during labor.  I've gotten a lot in the comments and through email and Facebook and have a few of my own so, if it's okay with you, there's a teeny part of me that may be thinking I'll be able to combine a few.  I'm a big fan of the offering it up and making labor a prayer thing but I'd also maybe like to not go through THAT many contractions ;)

Now, onto the capturing of the good stuff…

{pretty}
The backyard has color again!  


Our myrtle got seriously pulverized by the starving deer a the end of winter.  They dug through the snow and would chomp away in the early morning hours.  Normally this patch is heaping.  It's slowly growing back, at least.

I love myrtle.  It's a shade ground cover that is just so pretty and you don't really have to do a thing.  Except maybe protect it better from the deer.

I went over the weekend to buy some annuals!  Half are in pots, the other half still waiting to go somewhere...

This boy insisted on helping plant some of them.

And it feels good to have our hanging baskets.  They'll bloom soon…I just wanted to get them as soon as I could to have my porch perch all ready for baby.  I love the double impatiens so that's what I get :)  They look like mini roses and are made for shade which is our whole porch and most of our immediate yard.

{happy}
Lunches outside!
Squinty spring sun and no crumb clean up make this mama happy.

One of many bouquets I've received over the past few weeks.  The boys were thrilled when the dandelions started popping up.  And I have to say, I agree.  I know they get to be a pain in later summer but I just love all the sweet color they add to the spring yard.

And our sedum sprouted.  Another of my favorites :)

For some reason our daffodils haven't been blooming much this year.  We normally have dozens (hundreds?) around the yard but there's only been a few blooms this year.  David loved this one's enormous stem

A quick stop at the farm down the street to see the new lambs.  I don't think the farmer thinks I'm serious that I really really want to be at one of the births someday.  The lambs are so sweet.

And then there's these two.  

In picture, they are adorable and so sweet.  In reality, they are the best of friends and worst of enemies.

They call themselves twins.  Despite the two and a half year age difference.  They fool a lot of people, too, because they are so close size-wise.

A quick mechanic stop.

Lord, help me to remember these moments.

{funny}
They thought it was quite funny to pretend to be peaceful for 1.56 seconds.  The scene looks about a million times more peaceful in photo than it was in reality.  Not gonna lie, I'm very nervous how things are going to go down once this baby is here.  These two are quite the handful.

{real}
Lest you think our house is anywhere near perfect :)
Our front porch is rotting out and at some point we need to replace a whole lot of that wood.  And this is the side bed that I just don't know what to do with.  It only gets a little bit of late afternoon sunshine so nothing really thrives here.  In theory, I'd love to fill the whole thing with hydrangeas and build up a nicer stone wall to hold in some mulch.  But that would probably be a lot of wasted money and time because it's so shady for so much of the day.  They just wouldn't take off.  

And my poor beloved hydrangeas that I do have.  They're starting to come back a little bit.  I just don't think we live in an area where you can start them this little.  They never seem to have enough time to really spread and just kind of stay the same (if that) each year.  But I still have to baby them from the chickens with our super fancy wire cages lest they be trampled.  

Speaking of…those chickens.  I love that they roam around the yard.  I love that they can eat the bugs and forage and all that and there is something quite lovely about seeing them just wandering around our old home.  BUT why oh why must their favorite places to go be the few places where I don't want them?  Namely in the mulch and on the porch?  They just love to scratch in the mulch in the beds and then they get everything looking so messy…or they leave their other messes in places that we may step.  It drives me batty.  Any other chicken folks have tricks (besides fencing) to keep them out of certain areas??  

And just this little shot from his "class" the other day.  Because that face.

Hope you're having a lovely Thursday!
Linking up again with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {phfr}.

11 comments

  1. Beautiful spring photos, especially love the pictures of the boys.

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  2. Your boys are so beautiful! I loved all the pictures. Happy spring!!

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  3. I'd like to come hang out on your swing for the afternoon, if that's okay with you.
    Also, that plant you said has sprouted...sedum? We have that all over our back flower bed. I never knew what it was. It looks like I need to trim back the dead sticks, is that right? (Can you tell I have no idea about gardening? I'm learning on the job. It's kind of sad.)

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    1. That's how most of us learn! Yes, with sedum you can break off the old stems and it grows back fuller each year. Ours is "Autumn Joy" sedum and it's nice because the leaves stay green but it also will bloom in mid summer through autumn when other stuff is dying. With some plants (like hydrangeas) you have to leave the old stems because even though they look dead, they will resprout each year…learned that the hard way at our first home when I cut them back thinking it was old and dead and they never grew the next year :)

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    2. Thank you! I learned the hard way about the hydrangea, too...two years ago it didn't bloom because of my misguided efforts. :-) The sedum was saved because it's around back and I just haven't made it back there yet. Now I know what to do.

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  4. Hostas are supposed to thrive in shade. I am getting a few for our shady perennial garden this spring. :)

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    1. Yep, they are the best. We have SO many all over our property! Those would definitely work in that spot but I'm just kind of sick of them since they're everywhere else…I was kinda hoping to find something that would give prettier flowers. But we probably should divide some of them and use them to fill in some of those huge bare places!

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  5. I have a lot of groundcovers that thrive in shade (because most of our yard is shaded). Wish I could dig some up and send you some!

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  6. I'm with you, I'm kind of sick of hostas because we have them all over the place! Our azaleas and forsythia are doing well in the shade, and there's this "star of bethlehem" flower that it all over the yard that I LOVE (http://flowerinfo.org/star-of-bethlehem-flower) - it's pretty low to the ground so it might not provide the coverage you'd like, but I just love the symbolism!

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    Replies
    1. Pretty! I think we might have some of those in other parts of our lawn! Forsythias and azaleas might both work…I love that they both have a lot of color. The problem is that I'm too cheap to buy the plants that are already big and will make a difference quickly…but maybe I should?? Ha, we sound like old ladies with all our garden talk ;)

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