....never stop 'cause it's too much fun

We took advantage of the gorgeous spring weather and their good behavior to take a little jaunt to the park after school. They slid, they ran, they scootered, they posed....

Lucinda Williams' Buttercup

in the spring becomes the rose

We have about six knockout rose bushes that are in full bloom. I'm hoping to make use these and the pink version as gifts for the teachers and lunch ladies tomorrow. It's amazing to me that these bushes will be full of these gorgeous blooms for the next 5 or so months.

It's also hard to believe that I saw the Bette Midler movie The Rose when I was 13 - yikes, it was a big couple of years for racy movies what with Saturday Night Fever and The Rose.....man, I'm old! But blessed :-)

Bette Midler's The Rose

A light hits the gloom on the grey

I saw this tiny speck of color when I looked out our bedroom window last nite....
that tiny bit of pink is our first knock-out rose of the season

and it's soon to be followed by many more

Even our yellow versions are about ready to pop - I've never had these before, but they seem so hardy and you may remember they were still blooming in October last year. That's a long bloomin' season. Yay, Spring!

Seal's Kiss From A Rose

Now, please, grow for me!

Pitiful, right? These were the most beautiful poinsettias a few short months ago. When I started with the shears, I didn't have a lot of hope, but look what I found....

It seems like you can find a bright spot in just about anything. Sometimes you just have to open your eyes and look.It looks like it wants to grow, so....

I'm going to let it have a fresh start. May you find hope in whatever troubles you.

Little Shop Of Horrors' Grow For Me

There's no place like home and none more pleasin'

Apparently winter didn't kill everything at the old house...including our continued hope that someone will eventually want to live there and buy it!

I love these tulips and hope to replant them at our new home....maybe some of the non-blooming ones will come back....does anyone know if that can happen?

It had rained the nite before and the sun was shining so beautifully

This is our survivor dogwood - at least 3 trees have fallen on it and taken various parts, but it continues to bloom and hopefully will recover on the other side

My friend Patti is an artist and asked to boys to pose for a painting idea she has - her poor puppy may never be the same since Jack was wild but I think she's really good, so maybe she can salvage something from the attempts ;-)

The redbud is starting to bloom, and providing good eats for the flying ones

Posing is hard work, so we met some friends for lunch and ice cream - the boys chose cotton candy BLUE - can you tell?

They had a blast using the sweet art set to decorate the birdhouses Ms. Patti gave them - did I say they LOVE this set of cool artist tools?!

The boys played in the culvert, rode bikes and scooters, and Jack even brought me sweet purple flowers and a smile this afternoon. Then we went to the library, and lost Harry amidst the animals. It was a beautiful day!

Indigo Girls' Southland In The Springtime

But it’s a green christmas for me

I've noticed a lot of this lately....

I take it as a good sign that things are growing in our new home :-)

Barenaked Ladies' Green Christmas

Mama said knock you out

The new yard has some amazing roses that have survived a whole lotta neglect, so there's hope that I can make a go of the yard next year ;-)

First up, a lot of clean up...

Not a bad start - Colleen, I still really need you!

LL Cool J

Within my heart is ringing

We may be raising some little gardeners - they watered things as we took a tour of the current blooms. It was pretty exciting for me, as last year I transplanted some things and have been watching them thrive this year...a little rush for a beginning gardener. It helps to have such cute helpers, to be sure - look at this smile on Harry's face :-)

We divided these to place them on either side of our walk, the official name is

Hemerocallis 'Stella de Oro' (Daylily)

The boys heading out to the back to water their pitiful corn - I have to look to see where it should be by now, but I'm thinking it may be a lost cause :-(

The tiger lillies are gorgeous this year, just starting to bloom all around the drive

These hostas that I transplanted are just getting ready to bloom

as is this one

and this one seems to have about 4-5 blooms, so the next week should bring a big splash of purpleJob well done!

Brad Paisley's In The Garden

Blossom, smile some sunshine down my way

We seem to be in another wonderful round of blooming things here....I thought I'd share some of the pretties....

I have to find out the name of this one - we hate the location but it's hard to argue with this...

...gorgeous bloom. This should definitely be a scratch and sniff because it has the most wonderful magnolia scent

This exploded today

and the blossoms look like this up close

Indoors, my African violets are blooming

These wildflowers are all along our woods and our road

And the honeysuckle has been everywhere - the boys all tried it the other day...not everyone loved it, but it brought back a lot of sweet memories for me - did you eat honeysuckle as a child?

And these are my favorite blossoms, possibly EVER, the ones Harry brought me today after his nature walk with Dean :wub:

James Taylor's Blossom