Saturday What's New in Your World?

Good Morning Friends,It's not quite 4:30am and I think I'm up for the day. It's so nice and quiet around here it's hard not to have some nice quiet time and spend a few minutes catching up with my online friends

Today Mike and I plan to go to an indoor flea market that has 300 venders. It's today only costs $1.00 and free parking. What a deal. With all of the rain over here even Mike is willing to go on some of my little outings just to do something!

Wi**** would stop raining long enough to take  the girls to the park but I doubt if that will happen. They aren't  quite big enough for a McDonalds play area  yet and Hannah came home from daycare with a fever yesterday. We think it's just the back molar which is trying to come through but it could be the start of something else.

Our daughter Erin has really blossomed in the last 3 weeks. I think baby Briley is going to be a good sized girl. The twins were 4 lbs each at 33 weeks gestation. If Briley goes full term she could be between 9 and 10 lbs as her parents were almost 9 (Erin) and 10 (Josh). she will be a scheduled c-section thank goodness!

Can't think of anything else to report. We had snow yesterday morning and I heard hail during the night. Sure is confusing to the spring flowers that are already blooming! If you're on the road this weekend watch out for crazy drivers! Take care,

Good Morning Off
Been a while since I posted.   Life  or my little charges get in the way  sometimes.   Got home from Miami Sunday  and had a stepdad and 2 little ones on my back step Monday morning.  Of course all are welcome.    Ted found out his golf course isn't opening for a few weeks because of flood damage so he got a grand son to bring him "home".  The girls, well that's my job I guess  one job that unfortunately never runs out.    
We are heading up home for  family gettogethers.  Hubby's niece is in from Kansas  with her kids.  a new baby I cant wait to get my hands on!!!   Will only see my family for a few Min  since gatherings are at the same time.   Home to marrow,  Not sure about church because of my little charges disturbing behavior and all those Easter lilies!
Prayers going up for all my friends here.    And hopes for a safe and happy holiday full of family fun and for those who believe in the same reason for Easter that I do,  spiritual fulfillment.

Jo, Have a great  time visiting family. My mom was so good about getting everyone together. Since she passed away two years ago it seems harder to get everyone in one spot. She kind of "expected" it a couple of times a year so it would happen because no one wanted to disappoint her!

Morning my friend.

New?  WORK!!!   Thank goodness. It's the best week I've had in months, maybe things are turning around?  Sure hope so.

Gary's been prepared to go out to dinner tonight. It's been a rough, busy week and I'd really like a relaxing evening out.

One of my clients has a son who is a Senior in HS that wants to be a landscape architect. He's interned with one of the best nurseries in the area for a couple of years now, and has done everything from installing irrigation to starting from scratch on a project. Well, I'm having him come over to look at our "blank slate" back yard and will probably give him the job. I don't have a lot of money to spend, and he doesn't have years of experience to charge for, so it's a match made in heaven. Gary will take lots of pictures for Josh's portfolio along the way, so we'll all win. Sure hope it works out.

Alrighty then...time to hit the shower and get the bod ready for the day. Hope you all have a wonderful one!

Susan, What a great idea! I hope it works out too. You'll probably need to give him a bit of guidance and make sure he understands your budget and time frame. He's still young! I sure wished Jan C was around close to me as we were doing our landscaping in the new house. We kept it pretty low maintenance but I'm adding perennials as I find the time and money. We don't you take us a before picture so that we can appreciate the after along with you?

Good morning Karen , Susan and everyone ...we have had some of the most beautiful spring weather here this week and last night had a soft great spring rain. which has stopped this morning. Karen the redbud trees are popping open here, i know how you loved them when you were here before. so the dogwoods wont be far behind. this morning as i look out the window , my huge white bridal wreath and bright yellow forsythias and the yellow daffodiles along with the tulips beginning to bloom it is a bright and beautiful spring picture.
wish all of the spring plants that bloom could stay around and join in with the summer riot of bright color later would make such a lot of color dont know if we could stand all of it at once.

I have been doing lots and lots of weeding and putting down preen so wont have to weed and weed again later. lol
Have all my ponds and fountains running except the big one up front and it is being demolished to build a much bigger water fall and pool...have to get my younger brother over here to pick his brain he has done that for a living at one time. He isnt healthy now so i told him all i want is for him to sit in the shade with a glass of ice water and tell us how and Joe and I and grandson will pick up rocks and place them where he says.  im anxious to get it going. It is quite an art to get the rocks laid right so the water will fall right and make the sounds you want. tinkel or splash ....

as you can see my depression of the cold and miserable weather has dissapeared ...all it takes is the sun and being able to get my hands dirty , with torn nails and all ....lol

Susan that is a great idea for you to give the boy the job of doing your back yard to do....he is probably excited about that. just make sure you tell him what your budget is and what you hope he can accomplish....sounds like a match made in heaven....

Oh Jan, Your yard sounds lovely! You are so right. Nothing like spring to lift my spirits! It's my favorite season. We get some awesome rainbows in the spring at our new house. Lots of open sky and a view from on high teamed with spring rains and the sun. . . can't beat it!

My new neighbor is planning to plant a redbud tree. It will be where I can see it from my kitchen window! I didn't know that we could grow them this far north.

My plum and weeping cherry have already bloomed and the new dogwood that we planted looks like it's coming along.

I'm gradually adding perennials to my yard. Last spring in the front flower bed I had blue salvia, red geraniums and white alysum.  I didn't realize that salvia was a perennial. Yay! They are all coming up already so all I have to buy is the geraniums for that bed.

I plan to start some kind of climbing vine around my front porch pillars. Just seems to need something . Suggestions? I know wisteria is not a good idea anywhere near a roof, but a honeysuckle shouldbe ok shouldn't it? I loved the one I started on our back porch as a shade cover at our old house.

Erin has one over here that I took starts of in the fall but they didn't ever root. I tried rooting them in water. Is there a better way to root something when you take cuttings?

you took starts of a morning glory? never though of doing that just always gathered the seeds ...yes it is a  good climbing vine that will grow fast and be there for the summer and fall there will be plenty of seeds to come up next spring by itself probably.
I usually root most things in water. the thing that most people do wrong is wait and let the roots get bigger and stronger...wrong...as soon as you see the first little whisps of roots in the water from the plant you are rooting, take it out and plant it in a soft growing compound.....the more roots they have in the water the more of a shock it is for them to go to dirt. ....
I bet your front flower bed was beautiful with the red white and blue colors ....a friend of mine did the american flag in a big expanse of blank yard she had once. it was great but it was a lot of trouble too. she kept having to replant certain things to fill in for a plant that died or didnt do well lol ...i like throwing down seeds and watering them and saying now do your thing lol no not really but close to that. i love the old fashion cottage gardens which are what mine are. im not a formal person and my house isnt formal ....it all seems to go together somehow...even if i do have orange and red in the same beds. lol

Honeysuckle Jan, not morning glory! I'll try again. If I take some cuttings home perhaps I can get them started and then do as you suggest with a growing medium. Erin's honeysuckle winds around the columns of her porch. So pretty and a different kind than I started at our old house. Mine grew full very quickly and Erins is more of a vine that develops a strong stalk or trunk and then twists and turns. It's very trainable. I'll ask for suggestions at the nursery. I'm trying to do a lot of perennials. I have to be careful when I'm doing early weeding. Sometimes what i think are weeds aren't. I recently figured out that I had been pulling up little columbines!I've planted another lilac and a forsythia recently. My lilac that I planted last year is just about ready to bloom.

lol ok my mind must have been somewhere else. lol....yeah little columbine looks a lot like little clover coming up but once you reconize it you can tell the difference ....
Is Erins honeysuckle red or the old fashioned kind? i have both on my long tunnel type arbor into my shade garden....it should completley cover it this year. which is my intention. I want it to be like an entrance to a secret garden. the kids already love to run back and forht thru it. lol ....
i have so far 4 white and 2 purple liacs plus a new one that i think is a dark pink and they all have buds on them...they grow slow but once they are grown i guess you could blast them and it wouldnt really hurt them.