It's Thursday....and like #25 is here....

Greetings from the Garden!!!

How are things in your world?  We are fine here and busy with the usual spring work.  Today is our "I like Thursday posts" sponsored by LeeAnna at "Not Afraid of Color."    

Head on over to her blog to visit a variety of happy blogs :)

In case you didn't realize it, we live in a tiny house and have a small yard that well....has a lot of flower beds.  We only grow a little grass out front and mostly that is just a pathway.  So I haven't had any place to add plants but this year, Mr. 3P&N is building a vertical garden for us.  I'll probably use it to grow herbs.  It's keeping the mister busy while he is home and I'll be glad for the growing area.  Photos will follow whenever he is done.

Blooming this week...

 Delicate colored tulips, 

I have no idea where these came from but I love them!

 Be still my bleeding hearts.

And here is lovely lungwort with a happy be clinging to it.

I really like gardening (in case you couldn't tell) and moving plants, creating new borders and in general just changing things around is always a lot fun.  New bed created this week:

I like visitors in the garden, I'm still not sure what bird this is, but he sure did scold me on Sunday as I was weeding.

 

 Then I realized that there are now two nests in the willow tree.

Here's the clearest photo of the closest one:

I like how animals communicate.  It sometimes astounds me.

 Early this spring a sparrow was hoping around me as I gardened and he too was scolding me (or maybe it was she, hard to tell).  Finally it ended on the base of the bird bath.  I got the hint, brought out the bath basin, and filled the bath.

And peace reigned once more...

Here is my new bird bath that I fell in love with at (of all things) the grocery store.  I just put this one up on Sunday:

 And we still seem to have the cat highway going through our property.  I took this photo from inside our kitchen at the latest interloper.  He knows where the bird bath is...but the birds know when he/she is nearby.

I hope you are having a wonderful spring!

I like #24!

Well it's that happy day of the week, sponsored by LeeAnna at "Not Afraid of Color."  Be sure to visit all the sites of positive energy.

I'm late to the festivities this week because I've been lecturing all week. I like meeting quilters and learning about what they like and appreciate in a quilt.  It's a lot of fun and so many people have so many techniquest they love.

I like Ruby Short McKim.
Yes, the quilt designer--I've been studying her quilts for the last two years and have a new quilt program that focuses on her designs.  In my opinion, she is the most innovative quilt designer of the 20th century.  Tonight I launch the first lecture at a guild not too far away.  It's fun to meet new quilters but it's really fun to re-visit guilds to see how members are doing.

I like being outdoors in the garden and I like sharing with you all the changes that happen there.  With the recent warmth, it seems like plants are growing two inches each night.  In two weeks we've become quite green here.

My son and daughter-in-law helped mulch the front yard last week.  What's not to like about that?  

 I like pansies,

 grape hyacinth,

 pink tulips,

and an annual called "stock"--it smells like cinnamon.

 I love my swing retreat...

 and the patio where we gather with friends.

 And I hope you have a nice retreat too.  It's fun making your own little paradise and even more delightful to spend time there when you are done!

Have a great day!

Happy Easter!

I Like #23!

I like spring.  I like to watch the garden come alive and how every day during my morning tour of the garden, I see wonderful things that have happened overnight.It's like having my own special show in the back yard.

I do agree with a quote I saw awhile ago that said something like "if you want to teach a child about miracles, have them plant a garden."

This week I like daffodils.

I know where almost every plant came from in this garden.  It's not unlike how I know where each piece of fabric was obtained in my stash.  These daffodils were all from my son, Peter.  He used to give me daffodil bulbs for my birthday.  

Daffodils are interesting because they are very diverse in appearance and eventually, with help of the bees, new species are formed in your very garden.  It's very exciting to find a new strain!  These are just the ones blooming now.  We lost the first batch with the snow (except the ones that I had picked beforehand).  

Daffodils are what you want to plant if you have a problem with deer or squirrel eating your flower bulbs.  Every part of the daffodil is toxic and squirrels won't touch them.  

I know this well since I have planted about 200 tulip bulbs in my garden at one time or another.  I have under 5 tulips left.  One year, my brother gave me tulips with distinct red pattern on the leaves.  When they didn't resurface the next year, I thought the tulips hadn't made it through the winter.  WRONG!  I found them surfacing in my neighbors grass where the dang squirrels had planted them.

I like the honey bee quilt pattern.  I prefer the 19th century version (with the solid square instead of nine patch).  We have a lot of honey bees in our neighborhood.  It's surprising to garden visitors.  We live in a quiet neighborhood in a small city.  However, the Oyster House restaurant down the street keeps bee hives on it's roof.  I like that.  Bees are in so much trouble here with hive collapse that our orchard growers actually send their hives to the south for the winter.

I like all the rituals of spring:  changing decor to mirror the warm and happy months, purging things (especially clothes) and springtime projects (usually involving paint or some other messy thing that should be done outdoors).  I'm off to do more work and wish you the happiest of Easters!  Stop over and see LeeAnna from "Not Afraid of Color" and all the other participants in the Thursday celebration!

Premie Poloozza Concludes...

Premie Palooza concludes for the 2017 year.  I've made 62 all together and tonight they get turned into our guild and sent to the local hospitals.  I've purchased flannel for next year's batch and am looking forward to creating more. 

I hope you have a great day!