Happy Mother's Day!

I know it's almost over but CC and I had a very busy day - putting the greenhouse plants outside or in the mini-greenhouse in the garage, cleaning and organizing the greenhouse and putting most of the houseplants down into the newly-cleaned g-house.  We also took some things over to Value Village, returned our empties and did grocery shopping.  It was a warm, sunny day and I think I got a mild case of sun-stroke, as I have had quite the headache and am terribly thirsty.  The garden is rapidly changing as early spring flowers are dying off and new plants are pushing their way up, up, up.  It's an exciting time of year!

My mother passed away almost 20 years ago, so it's a bittersweet day for me, especially with all the hype about it.  She was a terrific gardener, so it was a good day to remember her.  Growing up, I remember people stopping in front of our house and telling her what a beautiful garden she had.  She was a potter and whenever she wanted to take a break, she did some weeding, pruning, planting etc.  Here's to mum's everywhere, whether they are with us physically or in our memories.

Pulmonaria macro

Marsh Marigolds ready to pop

Rhododendron from the Tundra with Heath

Epimedium

Bleeding Hearts emerging

May the 4th...

…be with you.  Not original, I know, but it does crack me up every time!  And NO, I will not be including Star Wars-themed photos in this post.  On a personal note though, I do remember when the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, and I LOVED it!  So much so that I bought all the paraphernalia I could get my hands on and wore a different Star Wars t-shirt every day of the week. That is until some wise-guy, in one of my classes (you know who you are RH), made some sarcastic comment about it and I became self-conscious enough to stop wearing them so regularly.  I just wish I had kept some of that stuff as a reminder of that time in my life.

Donkey's Tail ready to flower

Heath up close

Sunny Bulbs

Happy Easter!

Easter Cactus

     The first long weekend of Spring and it was beautiful weather!  After the snow and frost and cold earlier this week, it was a welcome respite.  Good Friday (in France, it's Holy Friday, in Romania, Great Friday, in parts of Mexico, Friday of Sorrows, etc.), was overcast and was a perfect day to sleep in and have a lazy day doing not much to recuperate from the week and get rested for the remaining weekend's craziness.

Crocus. Where's Waldo the fly?

     I had a quick visit into Toronto on Saturday to see the fam-damily, and then spent Saturday night making dessert for Sunday lunch with CC's family.

Spring Offering

Hellebore aka Christmas Rose or Lenten Rose

   

Table Setting for lunch

     There were ten of us for lunch.  CC bought a Quiche Lorraine (named after the Lorraine region of France) and we served it with oven roasted asparagus, mustard beans, an olive and bacon aperitif cake and a big green salad.  For afters, we had chocolate Creme Brûlée.   Mmmmmm!

Aperitif Cake

Oven-roasted Asparagus

Chocolate Creme Brûlée

Freesia Arrangement

Tulips

     CC bought lots of flowers and did some quite beautiful arrangements.  The lunch was a big success - everyone enjoyed the food and there was lots of laughter.  Back to work tomorrow.  Ugh.

Firsts

or, if you're Daffy Duck, "firthtth"!  Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and lots of folks were out in t-shirts and shorts avec doggies and/or prams getting a good dose of vitamin D after a long, cold and bitter winter.  My latest jdpegs are, I hope, just the beginning of what's to come...

First Magnolia blossom

First Christmas Cactus bloom

First variegated Crocus 

First non-fly pollinator

The first signs of Spring!

At Last!

Snowdrops

Aconites emerging from "the white stuff"

Clivea basking in the sun

Where's Spring?

Tulips in front of painting

   It's still cold outside and there's still snow on the ground.  Worst of all it's the end-of-winter kind - muddy, icy and exposing the garbage it has hidden all season.  What we really need right now is some colour in our lives, courtesy of cut flowers and flowering plants.

Azalea in bloom

My favourite Christmas Cactus

Different Tulips, same Painting

African Violet

     There, don't you feel warmer already?

A four-letter word.

Snow.  What did you think I was going to say?

CC clears the snow on the path to the compost

Half-buried chimney pot

Submerged Urn