Spring Blooms 2024

 

Saturday afternoon I walked around my neighborhood a bit to see what is blooming. The phlox around the Grace Village sign on Sunset Drive is still pretty.

One of my neighbors has irises blooming. My irises will probably open in 10-12 days. The peonies are developing well, may open earlier than June this year.

I noticed that she also has bleeding hearts. The Grace Village condos used to have some of these, but I think they got too much sun. I know mine did and lasted one year. Hers were in the shade of a tree.

This evening I was surprised by a visit from one of the ladies in my Bible study group who dropped off a vase of her snowball hydrangeas. The said her bush was overflowing so she was delivering some flowers to all of the ladies in the group.

Something else that sprouted up this spring were orange flags in our back lawn. We thought they had something to do with the sprinkler system, but they have been there about a month with no activity. Glad we are not the ones having to mow around them.

Today I bought some potted flowers for my front porch. I will try to get some photos in the next few days when the light is better so I can share. Tomorrow is to be a very rainy gloomy day. 

Among all of this floral beauty, I had the pleasure tonight of eating Blue Bell Moo-llenium Crunch ice cream. It finally showed up at Meijer. I think the last time I saw it was last autumn. On sale and with an additional dollar-off coupon, I couldn't resist. We became fond of Blue Bell ice cream when we lived in Texas. Do you have a favorite brand or flavor?

Almost Ready

 The new woodworking/hobby shop is almost ready to occupy. The closing on the property with the old shop takes place May 24th or 25th. The people hired to do the painting are supposedly going to move the equipment and supplies and workbenches, etc. So far, nobody seems to know when, but obviously it needs to be soon.

My husband supplied the movers with a floorplan with the equipment represented with templates. He and the other two guys have finished boxing up supplies. Once everything is moved, I expect to see very little of my husband for many days as he gets situated in his new workshop. 

They did a lot of fixing up and sprucing up of the old garage now converted to a shop.

The new heating/cooling unit is mounted up high so it won't take up valuable floor space. It is a heat pump. It has a remote controller for changing the temperature.

There are 3 windows plus a backdoor with a screen door that has a window to allow air in.

There are two overhead doors, but one was blocked off with a wall of pegboard. (Sorry I didn't get a photo of that; you will have to wait until things are all set up.)

An epoxy floor replaced the pitted cracked cement. Lots of outlets were added and a new breaker box to up the capacity of the electricity for all of the machines.

Things the guys really wanted that were nixed were a sink and a urinal. No running water. They walked to the Robin Hood Community Center for a bathroom. They jerry-rigged a water source in the old shop with jugs of water and a sink and will have to make do in the new shop as well. The man who does stained-glass needs water to ground down edges. Two of the guys live within easy walking distance and can use their own condo bathrooms. We will have to invite the third guy to use ours if he needs facilities.

Last night we turned on the furnace in the evening and I slept with my electric blanket on low. Later today we will probably have to turn the air conditioner on as it gets to 80 degrees. 

I have some plant growth in my patio plot: cheddar pinks and Asiatic lilies.

Along the side of the house is a blooming bush whose name I never obtained. Some years it hardly had any flowers (I think because of pruning at the wrong time), but this year it looks pretty good. My irises only have 6 buds so definitely not as good as in the past. My neighbors' peony bushes have the round globe buds already. Won't be long before they bloom.

I finally have a hanging basket on the porch. I first bought a fuchsia; we have a chain hanging down from the porch ceiling hook. The crook of the pot only fit part way through the link. My husband was working in the garage when he heard a crash. The plastic pot had fallen and split into pieces. I thought I might buy a pot but I really wanted a plant to hang not sit on the porch. It probably would not have received enough sun anyway. I saw a calibrachoa on sale at the grocery store and bought it. I have grown these in the past; they ended up with powdery mildew a few years. I hope this one doesn't get that problem.

I saw a pot of verbena for $5 and added it to the geraniums.

I bought a pillow to use with my porch rocking chair. My scoliosis makes one area of my spine bulge out, and the hard polywood slats hurt my back. Most of the pillows are too poufy. This one I bought at Walmart has a zipper; I took out some of the filling.

Now it feels comfortable and if it gets flat I can add back more stuffing. Spring always makes me feel happy after the cold winter.

Windy Walk

 

That is not snow on the ground; it is pear tree petals. I walked today in the wind because tomorrow we may have snow on the ground. I am wondering how the tulips and other spring flowers will fare when we get down into the 20's the next two nights. 

Anyway, I enjoyed them while I was able and they were available.

The Grace Village landscaper got into rocks in a big way last year. They are attractive on Sunset Dr. We did not have phlox until this spring.

This group of phlox and daffodils are near the main entrance.

These tulips in front of Assisted Living have been blooming for at least a week. I saw them last Tuesday when walking to choir practice but did not have my camera with me. I also took a photo with my new cell phone camera, but I am still very awkward doing that. 

My backdoor neighbor has some pretty tulips that opened last weekend.

My flowering quince bush has blooms since last week. That is about two weeks earlier than last year.

Over by the pond there are wild violets and hyacinth.

It was not a good time of day for pond photos, but I couldn't resist trying to capture an image of the baby goslings. I think I counted 8 bobbing yellow heads.

Some flowering trees and tulips around the neighborhood round out my sharing today.

I was planning to grill some Impossible Burgers tonight, but around 4:30 p.m. we had some sprinkles and now the grill cover is wet and it looks like we have more rain coming. As a part of my grocery order (pickup), I included some corn on the cob. The first I have seen in the ads this year. Time to get supper started. Hope your spring is beautiful now, too.

Easter Eve

Since it might rain tomorrow, I went for a walk in the sunshine this afternoon. I visited with a man from my church on his front porch; I haven't seen him in weeks. Two ladies who live next door to each other were sharing a porch; then another friend out walking came up close enough to join in. It was good for the 4 of us to get caught up on some news. In a retirement community one does tend to be acquainted with one's neighbors.

I was tired of walking west to the pond and back so I set out east to cross County Road 250 East onto Robby Road. This was "new" territory for me. Lots of things blooming now.

Hellebore are supposed to be early bloomers. This one over by the Community Center seems a little later than what I would expect.

As I headed east on Sunset Lane I came to these little purple flowers at the corner of Sunset and 250E.

This house on Robby Road had bright yellow forsythia and daffodils.

I think these are saucer magnolia blooms, but I am not sure.

Daffodils are abundant .

This blooming tree and the cross on the door reminded me that tomorrow is Easter. When I got home, my husband showed me an Easter card dropped off by our backdoor neighbors.

Yesterday my husband and I participated in communion using a YouTube video done by my pastor. We had some red wine and a water cracker which worked fine. It helped us focus on the events of Good Friday. With such a strange Easter this year, we were grateful to have something familiar to do.

We will watch a livestream worship service tomorrow. We may not be together with other believers physically, but we join them in spirit and heart as we remember the risen Savior.

Tulip Tuesday

We drove to Peabody Retirement Community in North Manchester this morning. I had planned to visit Friday, but the weather forecast is for rain the next few days followed by markedly colder temperatures. Today is pleasant with sunshine so off we went through the countryside. Most of the tulips are blooming, but the flowering trees are just starting.

Colorful blooms are wondrously cheerful, a real day brightener.

It's not hard to understand why this is one of my favorite spring outings. This batch of tulips is about 2-3 weeks earlier than last year's. I watch the tulips in my neighborhood; when they open, I head for Peabody.

Not all of the flowers are open yet.

This retirement community has benches among the flowers.

Of course there are other spring flowers besides tulips.

Notice the stump next to the white flowers. There was a flowering tree there in the past. They have planted some small dogwoods instead.

 Lots of blooms yet to open on these trees.

The colonial brick architecture is set off nicely by the trees.

I think there is a fountain under the plastic tarp. I don't recall seeing it in operation previously though.

Peabody will have its annual tulip festival April 29th I think. Might be a little late for peak tulip flowering with our early spring.