Spring is in the air

 It's still cool in the mornings here, but by afternoon, it's shorts weather.  I always take advantage of this time of year in the garden because by July, it's too hot to be out there after noon.  I spent most of the weekend doing things that weren't special enough for me to think to take a picture, but now that I'm talking about it, wish I had.  So many things have come up, or gotten a fresh start and I"m starting to get a feel for what this year's garden is going to look like.  And, I like it.

Two weeks was not enough time to start the lilac block multiple times and end up redrafting a bunch of it.  I was sewing in French knots last night, while we watched TV (we started Ted Lasso and I"m loving it).  Anyway, always my loudest critic, I wish I'd used a slightly more purple fabric.  I had three that were lilac, a darker, lighter, and a medium.  I chose the medium.  And there's not quite enough contrast with the background, but overall, and mixed in with a bunch of other blocks, I think it's going to look great.  Using that tan background, I'm going to have to be more careful choosing fabrics.  

The next block up is lily of the valley.  Good grief, batman!  It's going to be a minute before there's another quilt block to show...please stand by patiently...

We're still cleaning up storm damage.  We're going to have to replace the row of Indian hawthorns that run along the front porch.  I don't think they're coming back.  It's a shame.  Four of them were 20 years old and the other two were put in last year to fill the holes left when they leveled the front of the house and had to take two out.  We bought extra big ones because of that, and now we're going to need to replace them all.  

I thought I'd lost my bay laurel.  This was a 12 foot "shrub", thick with leaves...I haven't bought a bay leaf at the grocery in 20 years.  Anyway, we put it outside the fence facing the street when we moved it a few years ago and it grew there, very happily, but very slowly ever since, creating an anchor for the fence and a divider between our gate and the neighbors'.  The freeze took all the leaves and a lot of the branches, so we took this opportunity to clean it up.  We cut it way back to green wood and cleared out all the leaves below it.  Rob brought out the blower to make a pile and it smelled like soup around our house all afternoon.  I did find some nicely dried leaves to bring in and store until this tree is back up and making fresh bay leaves.  The green thing just inside the gate is a metal sculpture of a century plant.  I think it should be used one way and Rob thinks it should be used a different way, so there it sits...in the way.  (this is called silent negotiation)

I'm getting a few white iris.  Not nearly as many as last year, but I dug them all up and divided them last year, so it's not a fair comparison.  Lots of doubles, like this one, where two flowers develop on one stem.  Normally, one would bloom and then the other, but this year, many of them are blooming together.  

I'm getting more violets than ever before.  I'm learning about violets and that I need to be careful with them.  I had one in the greenhouse last year and now I have them in everything that was out there.  In the back of this photo, there's ajuga in bloom and in the front are the violets.  I intermix them as a ground cover in the garden path and it's working for me.  No matter how hard I step on them, they come right back.  I don't know where the term 'shrinking violet' came from.  They're certainly not fragile.  

Everybody have a great week!  I liked it last week when President Biden said something like 'I've only been here 6 weeks, man.  Give me a chance.'  I think we've all got to keep that in mind.  In six weeks, I've made four quilt blocks and he's set up a government, rooted out some corruption, and geared up to meet his 100 million shots in arms goal.  I respect!

And, I wear a mask...because it's the right thing to do.  

Lane