What's Bloomin' In The Snow

You've heard the old saying about March: In like a lion, out like a lamb.

Ha. This year, it's the reverse: the beginning of March was beautiful, but yesterday it snowed...and today it's cloudy and windy. Oh, spring, you fickle fiend. There are still plants blooming, though, even through the snow. Bless them.

My apricot trees "popped":

My neighbor gave me these lovely violets, that just smell heavenly:

Using a milk carton for transplanting small plants is just genius, let me tell you. And after they were planted, they still looked (and smelled) lovely:

I am especially excited about these because they act like a ground cover. With a yard as large as mine, I'm always looking for ground covers that will work!

And I am thoroughly disgusted with my forsythia, which has only four flowers to show for itself:

While the neighbors' forsythias all look pretty much like this:

Hm. Maybe I'm not watering it enough - or maybe it needs another week or two to impress me. At any rate, my daffodils also started to come out. They are a little weighed down by snow:

This time of year, you have to be ready for anything. Have a great week!

What's Bloomin'

Keeping with the last few weeks, a new crocus color popped up...along with beautiful pin-striped stars:

The stars are actually called "stardrift"

A better stardrift picture

And I had to plant a few more flowers, because the bulbs really aren't filling up enough space yet:

Candytuft, so cute

Mostly, though, the last week of gardening was just planting, planting and more planting. More of my internet plant orders came in. One of them came with every stem broken:

And GardenerDirect.com happily agreed to send me a new one after I emailed them my sob story. Love when a company stands by their product! Even better, they told me to just plant the one that had been broken in hopes that it would eventually send out leaves. So, I did. Other than having every stem broken, it was actually in very good shape. I just don't want to start with a non-existent plant in the front of my house, which is where I'm planning on putting the full plant when it gets here.

Hoping you're enjoying spring as much as I am!

The Good, Bad and the Monday

This past weekend, there was some serious excitement around here. I went to my mother-in-law's for a "sister" party - all the women in Doug's family were invited.

It was primarily a talk-fest, which was wonderful. If there's anything I need more than sleep, it's being social. Especially with women. There's something unique about the female relationship, especially when sisters are involved. Lovely, restful weekend.

Doug had an entirely different weekend. As one would expect, being alone with all five children without mom around. However, he also decided it was the perfect weekend to hang drywall in the basement. Last week saw him prepping the basement with metal strips along the ceiling:

He also brought out the scaffold, which the kids LOVE

Two of his brothers came to help with the drywall. Along with four of the kids' cousins. Par-tay! And it was. The kids all reported having a blast.

My basement is also happy-happy:

Yes! Drywall! Granted, there is still a lot of taping and mudding to do, but the strenuous work is done. Now comes the tedious part. Go, Doug.

So, that is the good part of the weekend.

The bad part? I am still sick - after three weeks of being sick, I was diagnosed with a sinus infection on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully, antibiotics should take care of it soon.

And then, there was Monday. Argh. The morning was a typical long haul with crabby kids who had stayed up too late all weekend and slept in to their hearts' content. Then I went to take Jack to school.

We have had issues with our garage door over and over and over since we moved in. Sometimes all is well, and then there is the majority of the time where it goes slow, or even slower than slow. Yesterday was the slower than slow day, but I wasn't paying attention. I checked to make sure the door had cleared the back window, and reversed out of the garage. Except there was a huge "clunk" where the top of the van hit the bottom of the garage door, bending the door, knocking the fin off the van and generally making me feel very, very dumb.

The back of the van

The piece that is supposed to be on the back of the van

Doug was, of course, home. Always good to have an audience when doing something stupid, right? Luckily, he was able to get the garage door working again (it was also knocked out of its track). The van is still minus a fin, but at least it's not a safety hazard.

And the day didn't stop, of course - after a dentist appointment and putting in more plants (because I am me), I just crashed last night. Thank heavens it's Tuesday, right?

Finally - some evergreens in the yard

Flowers tomorrow, I promise.