Summer kick off?

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and I plan on working in the garden... in the sun with the scent of my hubby's BBQ filling the air, but Mother Nature is messing with me a bit. Just a tease I think, a blizzard blew through last night... again.

The Delphiniums are loving the frequent watering but I am getting a little tired of the snow. A photo of my herb garden last night...

and my herb garden this morning... Frosty!

My tulips last night...

My Tulips this morning, a little droopy. They will perk up as soon as the sun warms them.

I leave you for now with a shot of my hair with fluffy white flakes...the good kind. I pray you are all warmer than I am.

You can see how hard it was snowing behind me. I do believe this is the last snow of the season... I hope.
Here's to a warm Memorial Weekend. :-)

Odd Blooms and Kooky Benches

The weather around here has been feeling like spring, so I have been happily decorating my tiny garden with my favorite ornaments. Every year when I start to bring out my rusty metal stakes I think they look so stark and cold poking out of the ground with no greenery around to soften the scene. As the plants grow up around them they transform into something warm, aged and forgotten... like an old weathered abandoned shack covered in vines. I love old abandoned shacks! My daffy's are doing great.

The snow has turned to rain and the tulips are starting to sprout so soon there will be splashes of red among all this yellow.

I planted purple grape hyacinth all around the Daffodils a couple years ago hoping to add a new color but they come up after the Daffodils are spent. Oh well.

On my walk to the post office today I thought I would take a couple shots of the odd benches we have along the way. As you may know I live in a Ski Resort town... so here is a "chair lift bench". Oh how I wish they would paint that wall and plant some green bushes around it. It is a clever idea I guess...

But THIS one I really don't get! I didn't get a photo of the bench, it is a giant log with a large wedge cut out of it to form a bench shape. The odd thing is... well this...

These are my knees as I sit and take in the view. What view you say?

This one! Three pine trees.

I could slide to one side or the other but if you sit right in the center this is what you see. A close up view of bark. Weird... I think.

Paint Project

This weekend was warm and sunny so I spent as much time as I could out in the garden and I am glad I did because it is raining today and snow is in the forecast for tonight. I raked and shoveled and when I was starting to feel a sunburn coming on I set up shop on the deck in the shade with my acrylic paints. I was inspired to make colorful plant markers.

My fine hubby was nice enough to cut up several blocks of wood for me. He keeps telling me I could do it myself but I can't get over my fear of power saws, I blame my woodshop teacher. I think all those safety stories scared me permanently.

I started out with the plan to use Sea Glass colors but I kept goin' off track. I can't help it... I am drawn to vibrant colors.

Then I used a marker to sketch out the designs.

I had a brief set back when I realized the varnish didn't make it through the winter.

Lucky me, I was able to find another can out in the garage.

So...here they are all varnished, now I just need to put stakes on them and pop them in the ground. Oh... and wait for our last frost! ;-)

My Sad Daffodils

Last night my garden looked like this... and my poor little Daffodils were very sad.

Last year at this time my Daffys were so happy and warm.

I hope we thaw out soon, yesterday I watched Home Alone and fought the urge to bake Christmas cookies. Help me ;-) J

Little Shop of Rainbows

I have just a bit of an update on some of the fantastic hand dyed items I have for sale at the Shop. Rainbows of many types seem to be our best seller and they happen to make me feel giddy so I have pushing the hubby/tie dye master to produce rainbow after rainbow.

Newborn rainbow...

toddler rainbow...

and we have just added an adult small Rainbow Tee and will be adding a broader range of adult sizes soon.

This one makes me so happy! I mean just look at it... it is so friendly and bright. I have two rainbow swirl tees in size 2T. I just mailed off two of them for a return customer with twins! Eeekk...so cute, I hope I get a photo.

Hope you have a lovely day. J

The Mean Red's

Two days ago I came very close to losing my beloved Cosmo.

For those of you who haven't met her here is a shot...

We have had her since her birth in August of 1996. She is a Border Collie/Pit Bull mix and has been my close companion for nearly fourteen years. Cosmo,or as we call her... Doe'd, started to swell up and drool after her dinner on Sunday and she had to have her tummy deflated by the Veterinarian. We are so lucky we reacted quickly, she surely would have died. On Monday morning we made the decision to have her put down because of the doctors feelings the night before, so I was a complete wreck all day. I had a bad case of "The Mean Reds". Then the doctor called and said she was doing well and we could bring her home. She is a miracle dog! I have never been so relieved, I have my baby back. She is pretty tired though... I am so happy she is back in her favorite chair.

In a lame attempt to get my mind off things I grabbed my camera and took the following photos on my walk to the Post Office.

Spring is here!I liked the fresh red paint on this fire hydrant but just pretend that ugly pile of dirty snow isn't there...Spring struggles around here.

I couldn't leave you with that last ugly image so here is a photo I took the day of my dear cousin's wedding in Portland. She happens to be having a Birthday tomorrow

Happy Birthday Cuz!

I love you J