It’s so beautiful in the garden these days. The temps are in the low 60s, and it’s been really sunny, big blue skies. We need rain in the worst way, and we’ve had a couple of passing thunderstorms in the last couple of days, but we need a real soaking. Princess is really enjoying the weather as well, and loves going outside with me to keep me company.
Skip came out on Friday and they hooked up the irrigation, or at least started to. He identified the things that didn’t make it through the winter, and will replace it next week. Monday we’ll get the lawns reseeded. They think they found the place where the pond is leaking too, which is above the waterfall, strangely enough.
The tulips are coming out better than any other bulb at this point, though the hyacinths and daffodils haven’t given up yet. I don’t think I’ve actually seen a blooming daffodil yet, though there are buds.
The creeping phlox that we planted all over is coming up so cutely! We put it on the edges of the new stone walls, and around the stones along the waterfall.
I’ve never had flowering trees before, growing up in the desert and all. I keep going out to look at the trees in bloom. We have a weeping crab apple that is just gorgeous, and the camera just doesn’t do it justice, but I keep trying.
Frank took some photos off the upstairs balcony, overlooking the old beaver swamp. I remember being boggled when I first moved here, wondering what had killed all those trees. “They drowned,” he told me. It never occurred to me that there could be too much water. I grew up in the desert where there never was water, so that concept was just alien to me. We are slowly clearing these trees away, so we’ll have a clear view of the swamp from the house. There are lots of moose and deer that come in search of water, and some black bear too. And tons of birds.
The plants in my window boxes are coming along nicely. I have all three shelf units that Frank built in operation now. I so want to put the little guys out on the deck, but it’s still freezing or coming very close to freezing almost every night. It really is better to let them get as big and healthy as I can under the lights before I put them out. Skip is going to run a soaker hose along the edge of the deck to water the guys from the irrigation that’s being put in now. I still need Frank to finish the shelf on the top balcony that will hold the window boxes along that edge.
My Mother’s Day fuchsia — needs cool weather and lots of shade, so I have it hanging from the flag pole near the front door right now. Hopefully it will do well there. That side of the house gets almost no sun at all.
Jeremy got me roses and Frank got me a new digital camera for Mother’s Day, and have been a picture-taking fool. When people come over now, they are all remarking how “estate like” the house looks with the landscaping. And when we first moved in, the trees were literally up to the house on three sides.