Blooms ! :)

Before I start this blog post, I want to thank those who have responded to my last post about our dog, Abby. We are encouraged by the suggestions and comments and look forward to finding a way to help her (and us!) out of her current situation.

On to today's post - Blooms! Spring is here, and even though on the calendar it is still winter, it seems that many things here are tired of waiting! And the pansies, which have been around all winter to give us color, are vigorously cheering the warm weather.

I have two of these waterfall pansies hanging pots on our front porch and they are so pretty. Next year, I hope to get 6 of them to hang all around the porch.

Cheerful faces in an old Hungarian baby bathtub; we have some smaller pots of pansies scattered around the house.

We went to Martin's Nursery on Saturday to get some help with planning what to do with the ugly bank behind our house, and came home with a drawn planting plan and several suggestions by the owner of the nursery. I had taken photos of the area and printed them out. She did all the rest. How great was that!?

Yellow Jessamine for the arbor we'd had built, the state flower of South Carolina.

I received ten tiny trees from the Arbor Society last fall, planted them and held my breath. Now nine of them have sprouted leaves! (The 10th one was eaten by our daughter's dog, Kit) These are the Hawthorne trees.

We have several Forsythia shrubs - one full grown bush given to me by a friend, which we divided into 2 plants; both are doing well. I rooted several cuttings and now we have lovely little shrubs growing in front of the fence, as well as the two in front of the barn. Only one did not make it.

This is Loropetalum, also referred to as Chinese Razzleberry or Chinese Fringe Flower. There were 6 of these around our back porch when we purchased the house, which was not a good place for them to be, since they grow to about 6'! We moved 3 to the outside corner of the fence (shown here) and 3 on the side of the fence, last year. They all made it!

This is the Ugly Bank, with some puny Juniper plants (we will have someone help us put the plants in, since I have fatigue issues) ....

..... and these is the arbor where the Jessamine will go.

And besides flowers, all of the birds are busy claiming their territory. The bluebirds built this nest in the bluebird house last week and started laying eggs.

So far we have 3! I expect them to lay 5 total, as usual.

I hope where ever you are, you are enjoying the weather. I feel richly blessed!!

Click on any picture you want to see closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!