EVERY BLOOMING THING UNDER THE SUN: GARDEN NEWS

The start of the tulip parade

One would think that I've been busy as a bee since it has been a little over a week since I last posted.         Really though, I haven't.  Just some normal 'catch up' after our trip...laundry, a car wash, making the house a little more presentable.  Errands, grocery store, light therapy for the skin 3 times a week.  And there wasn't much to photograph.  My Swiffer?  Do you ever feel as if a lack of photos means a lack of words?  Well, I'll do my best, I'm rarely at a loss for words.  ;-D

We had wonderful weather last weekend and I was really, really happy that I only had to make a few subtle hints to get The Husband to clean out our shed.  It has been a super mess for a very long time and I knew it would take me weeks and weeks to clean out.  Bags of old fertilizer and grass seed long expired, rakes, shovels and garden tools scattered all over.  In a far corner, Abby's  bike from when she was about 13.  He filled about 10 huge trash bags and had a huge stack of junk to be brought out on trash day.  Thankfully our son in law, Mike, came over and lended a hand in bringing it all to the curb. It's such a relief to have all of this space.  There is already some shelving in there as well as hooks on the wall.  I really can't wait to organize everything.  Gardening is going to be much more easy this year and clean up in the fall a breeze.  Thank you, dear. 

I forget the name of these tiny flowers each spring and I think you gals told me their name last spring.  Help!  Also, do you think I can divide them, they are great ground cover.

Last Sunday when The Husband was doing the shed makeover, son Kevin came by with little Elsie.  She's been walking for 2 1/2 months so it was so cool to have her in our back yard.  I took her hand and showed her the tulips, picked one for her which she promptly tried to eat.  She really loved the branches of the forsythia, so bright yellow now.  Abby and Tom pulled out my patio table and umbrella that morning so we spent time in the shade.  I made her some buttered toast and cottage cheese and she sat on my lap in the shade to munch.  Then we took a little stroll, hand in hand down the front sidewalk.  She babbled and I guess what I said was babble to her:  "This is where your daddy walked to school for years, from the age of four to thirteen".  We walked back to the house and stopped where you can see the gate to our backyard.  Milo and Layla were waiting and she immediately recognized them and pulled toward that direction.  Then she saw Grandpa in his bright red shirt near the shed and her face lit up.  We had a great afternoon and I think Kevin liked his alone time in the cool house watching the Cubs game.

More backyard babble.  Told you I didn't have a lot of pictures.  I can't wait for warmer weather to add to my herb garden.  My chives and oregano come back every year and you can see the dead foliage of last years morning glories.  I don't clear them out in the fall, the seed pods are ripe and ready to pop up once they get rain. Yes, a lot more clean up 

Speaking of rain, I have some bare spots in my lawn and I'm a perfectionist about my front and backyard.  I like to reseed when I know we have rain predicted but sometimes it doesn't work out for the best.  With rain in the forecast on Wednesday evening, I flew to Home Depot after my light therapy and paid a fortune (as usual) for grass seed.  I didn't even go into the house once I got home, rain drops had started to fall.  I opened the garage, pulled down the spreader, filled it up and seeded that front lawn in about ten minutes flat.  And then a light rain started and I did a little jig inside.  And  then the thing I dread happened.  The rain started coming down in torrents and that washed the seed around, and made puddles in shallow spots.  My only consolation is I do have about 1/4 of the bag left and I'll wait until June to fill in random spots.  Am I not a relentless perfectionist?

I might have forgotten to mention that the day after I came back from Canada I went over to Emily's house, she watches little Elsie on Thursdays.  The Husband and I always get her (Elsie, not Emily) a little something with the name of the places we visit.  Isn't it cute?  Later that day the three of us went to Target and wow, it was so cool to push a baby in a cart again!  And she is so good.  Even though she was getting tired, she was excellent.  She rarely, if ever cries.

  

This was another beautiful weekend and Milo and Layla are really loving the warm temps and the tease of summer.  I dug out the 'outdoor' water bowl and little Layla, who loves to stretch out in the sun, became a little overheated and decided that the cold water was the place to lie down next to in the shade.  

I have tons of work to do outside and I haven't even begun to plant flowers.  I have plenty in my flower beds but I love pretty pots.  Just not warm enough yet. 

 In between my time outside doing the chores, I'm catching up on some reading, visiting more blogs every evening than I have been in the past few months (thank you for understanding that life sometimes gets crazy) and I've been really experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes.  I take such terrible pictures of food and since we actually eat what I make, I can't spend a lot making the food look pretty; staging with various props and letting it get cold.  Each recipe I've tried, one from a restaurant in Vancouver with ingredients I sort of figured out and stored in my phone, have been spectacular and I'm sure I'm going to make these again and again and I'll be sure to get a few shots.  What's a recipe without a picture? And something I'm really happy about is I did dust off my little Canon, used it in Canada, and downloaded some pics today.  In fact, all of my flower pictures were taken with this camera so I'm keeping it at hand and definitely not grabbing my iPhone for pictures.  Hopefully my food will look better!  Some of the recipes I made for the first time were Quinoa Salad with arugula, red pepper, cucumber, capers and Feta cheese.  Another great recipe was a wonderful Chicken Paprikash that is very traditional to Hungary, and utterly the best.  And finally, an oven baked fish and chips.  How great not having to have it fried.  The secret?  Browning the bread crumbs in a skillet before you coat the fish with them.  I'll share these in upcoming posts.

Thanks so much for the visit.  I'll try to stay on track a bit better.  I hope all of you are having good weather.  Would love to hear what you are doing outside to get ready for summer.  What is your weather like?

Have a great week and I'll be back soon (just need that camera at my side!).

GO BLACKHAWKS!!!

Jane x