Promises

It's that time of year when there are so many promises of what is yet to come.

HAPPY EASTER!

Another Birdhouse

 Do you remember the birdhouse project I wrote about here?  Well, I've made another one.  I had a friend over for lunch and a craft and we both made houses. My friend's is on the right and mine on the left.

 I used cut up pine cones for the shingled roof. The roof is outlined with stalks from sedum.  The walls are covered with split Joe Pye weed stalks, and the wreath around the hole is from tall grass.

We had a lot of fun completing our projects.

A Few Good Things

First good thing:

Decorating eggs for Easter a new way at Emily's. Below is one done by Sarah with incredible detail.

 One of my efforts.

 Emily's masterpieces with one of mine on the top row.

 Close-up of decorated eggs.  Mine on the right and Sarah's on the left.

 Emily cleaning out one of my decorated eggs.

 How we learned how to decorate eggs. It involves drawing with wax and lots of lovely dyes.

Second good thing:

 Fresh picked spinach from the garden for dinner.

Third good thing:

An unexpected find of violets perfect for a tiny vase set.

How It Looks Here

I spent the afternoon fertilizing everything with Miracle Gro which I know is a no no for some of you but the plants love it.  Then because its that time of year that deer love to find those new green shoots, I gave the tastiest greens a third dose of Liquid Fence in this month.  I find I need to do it often in the early spring because the greens like the hostas and day lilies are growing so fast.  Also I'm training the deer visitors for this year to stay away.  Liquid Fence sends the message that things smell bad in my yard so stick to the woods.

So here are a few shots of how things are looking.  First the hostas in various stages of growth.  You can see the blush of green on the trees.  Won't be long before they're in full leaf.

 See the bird house in the background.  I hung that up today and went in to get something else.  When I returned the chickadee was already checking it out.

 You can see the smudges of liquid fence on the hostas below.

 

These hostas next to the stone wall of the house are the farthest along.

 Fiddle heads!

 Love the bleeding heart!

 In the vegetable garden the mesclun,

 the tatsoi,

 the snow peas,

 the bok choy,

 one of four broccoli,

 and blueberry blossoms which mean blueberries this year.

 In this bed I planted a second sowing of carrots and snow peas yesterday.

 The spinach bed.

 And I did have frost damage the other day.  It killed off the volunteer pumpkins and tomatoes and damaged this hydrangea.

Finally, the gold fish are alive and well until we have a visit from a great blue heron again.  The visit last spring wiped out most of them except for the ones who knew to hide.  They have multiplied and now are available again to that bird.