It's been a rough past week here.  

Some very emotional things have happened

within my family and to people in my family.  

This morning I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and decided to get up 

and take a few moments for myself before the rest of the house

 decided to wake up.  I enjoy doing this in the summer

because I can come downstairs and open doors

 and windows and let the cool morning air seep in and

 replace the stale, muggy, closed in air from the night.

So I made a pot of coffee and sat on my porch

 and enjoyed the cool air and the chirping birds and

 my fresh hot cup of coffee.  When the sun started to move to

my space on the porch, I decided to get my new camera 

and see what I could catch thru the lens and play a bit.  

Please join me on a .....

 I love to tour a little bit in the morning light....

 I wanted to catch the birds at the feeder,

but not get so close that I would scare them away.  

This picture I took from my porch while sitting down.

 This guy was sure enjoying this homemade bird food

~made for me by my little Great Nieces~

 While I toured my yard I was also watering.

These lilies are the most fragrant in my yard

and I do not know the name of them....

Do You??

 We have raspberries....

they struggle, but we have them.

 The other day I showed you a basket like this with the new coco liner.

I show you this with the old coco liner because I am wondering

 if any of you know if there is some kind of liner for this

 that would help it to last longer?

 I was so excited when I put my pictures on my computer to see

how well I got a picture of this Chickadee....

Love my Chickadee's!

 This guy sure has his head stuck down in there to get

some seed, must taste good!

 ~Peek A Boo~

Do you see him?

 Just watering my sink!

Love that I could catch the water sprinkling!

I really like this photo too....

Makes me smile when the birds eat from my feeders!

Well, that's it for my little tour.

Hope you are all having a delightful weekend.

It is very hot & humid here....

spending the day inside!

It's kind of been a tradition of sorts

from the beginning that for Mother's Day

I get flowers.  I am happy with that and look forward

to getting them.  Not a bouquet of flowers,

but flowers to plant in and around our yard.

 So last Saturday we went out and I got 

flowers to start planting in my planters and such.

Here are a few!

This year I chose a sweet potato vine 

and 2 pink geraniums, I thought they would

look good with the deep purple of the vine

in my old bucket.

The English Daisy is once again getting moved

from my pot on the table on our porch. 

 I haven't quite decided where to put it yet.

The other flowers will go in a planter by

our back door, where most everyone enters

when they arrive Home for the day or come to visit.

Back Door Guests are Best!

 Quite a few years go I bought this bird bath.

The base at one time had a top that matched.

I loved it because it has birds on it.

but, at some point the top got broken

and so to come up with a "quick fix"

I bought a terra cotta saucer and used that.

It did the job, but it just didn't look good to me.

 So my lucky day came last Friday while I was

at a local garden center.  They happened to have 

the exact match topper for my bird bath!

So I bought it and called my husband 

and told him that I just bought my 

Mother's Day gift and for him not to stress

over trying to find something for me.

Do you ever do that?

 I am seeing in fashion the trend this year is

putting different colors together.

Like a Pink top with Red  pants....

So I am trying it with this planter....

Pink petunia's with my Red planter.

I hope it works!

 Once again, I changed up the flower in this planter.

Now a bright Red/Orange

Gerbera Daisy!

On Mother's Day 

My husband did all of the cooking and cleaning of the kitchen.

He quite often does the cooking, but when it is a special occasion

he steps it up a notch.  

We enjoyed

Scallops, with White fish over smashed potatoes

with fresh Asparagus and Olives

along with a Caesar Salad 

and Strawberry Shortcake.

Needless to say 

everyone cleaned their plates!

My Hillary recently got a promotion at work

and so she couldn't come Home,

but she did send me a

Happy Mother's Day text

while on one of her breaks at work.

Mallory cut the lawn for me,

as of late that is something I have been doing.

So to have her do it was nice for me!

Amanda generally has Sunday's off so she was able to be here

as well.  She surprised me with a present that goes

perfectly in my desk area....

 I have admired this birdcage note holder for awhile now....

she remembered obviously and got it for me.

 So I quickly removed the picture I had hanging there 

and put this up on the nail that was there.  It goes with my 

theme, birds, bird on my laptop, bird nest lamp

and I have an oval mirror hanging next to it

that has a bird perched on the top.  

I clipped her card and a picture of the two of us on it.

Thank you Amanda, I Love it!

Today I will be out there planting my flowers.

I have 5 of these planters to do and

several other random ones around our 

back yard.  I need to move with the sun

and get this all done.  Tonight they are calling for rain,

so the sooner I get these in the better.

What are you up to today?

Planters & Baskets, Oh My!....

The sun finally came out this afternoon

I went to the grocery store which also has a 

garden center and I just couldn't resist any longer.

I picked up a few flowers to put in my planter

by our front door....

 each year I do something a little bit different,

this year I still put in my spikey thing and my viney thing

but, along with my geranium I added

~Portulaca~

 They're the colorful flowers on the outer edge.

If you haven't heard of them before

they are tolerant of heat and dry soils....

that's this planter!

 I picked up this English Daisy awhile back

and finally put that in this little planter by our

driveway and added a few of the 

Portulaca in with it.

Adds a bit of color to our 

back entry!

 While my hubby was getting wood for the shed

on Sunday, I snuck out to the garden center and

picked up a couple of hanging baskets.

I thought this one was pretty with the

purple and yellow combo....

 Not bad for $8.88!

 I picked up this plant stand after my Mom 

passed away 2 yrs ago.  I brought home a

gorgeous Begonia hanging basket from her

funeral.  It looked so  pretty on my porch and 

every day when I sat on my porch I would think of her.

She loved my porch too!

I still think of her when I sit on my porch,

so I thought this basket would be a 

pretty little addition!

 Again, $8.88!

I looked at Mother's Day cards today

at the store....

we've since lost my hubby's Mom as well.

I must admit, I got a bit of a tear in my eye.

They will be missed this year for sure!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a much 

~HAPPIER~

note....

 You may remember my post of the high winds

breaking my gazing ball....

~not such a happy note~

 Well, I found a pretty replacement at

 Hobby Lobby

on sale....of course!

I really like the swirls and the bit of

color that pops out when the sun hits it.

I am thinking of painting the base a darker color though.

Maybe something in a rusty tone would look good.

What would you do?

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope you had a chance to get out 

and plant some flowers!  I don't know about your corner of the world,

but for tomorrow they are talking about

Rain!

Pretties {No More}...

We are having a wonderfully sunny morning here, so far.

The kind of sun that makes you feel energized,

even if you really don't want to be.  I have been sitting

here looking through all my favorite blogs

and trying to plan out what to do today.

But, first I thought I would share a few things with you....

 My little teapot....

you've seen it before, I know....

but, the tulips have ~expired~

so I bought this little container of 

English Daisy

~Mixed Galaxy~

they're called!

I'm thinking of taking these to my Mom's cemetery

 and planting them in her urn. 

 I think she would love them!

 These little colorful tulips lasted quite awhile....

but, I absent mindedly left them outside

in this very spot, when we were having

upwards of 60 mph winds....

they didn't make it thru sadly!

But, they were pretty while they lasted!

~Pretty No More~

 No these are not from this year.

I used these pictures because they were very pretty

~Holly Hocks~

as I'm sure you know.  But, they have

started to over take our yard.  So, on the

days I have been able to be in the yard gardening....

I decided to pull them up and dispose of them!

~Please don't be upset with me~

I'm sure there are some that have missed my sight.

but these are....

~Pretty No More~

 Beautiful color though!

Love my Gazing Ball! 

 But, unfortunately with those high winds it's....

~Pretty No More~

I just put it out on Sunday too.

Makes me sad!  Darn, now I have to go shopping!

 Smashed like glitter!

Maybe I will pick up more of these

Pretties for my teapot!

Sunday Sunshine....

Was it Gorgeous in corner of the world

Sunday??

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

 It felt so good to be out and working in the yard again.

 Brad pulled out the edger & got that done.

 ~Mom....stop!~

He also got Mallory cutting the lawn....

not sure she was happy about that!

 There's always lots of work to do after the snow melts!

 The pool cover has to be pulled off

and spread out to dry.

 This bush was sure vibrant yesterday!

 So were the forsythia!

 There was some work needed on the bike....

(which ended up in the trash)

 Relaxing in the grass she just "had to" cut!

I pulled alot of dead off the plants I felt would

 be safe if we were to get real cold again.

Good thing I left most of it for another day. 

 We got down to 29 degrees last night!

It still felt great to get out and work in the yard!

I just love these first days out!

How about you....

did you get a chance to work around your yard?

We even pulled out the porch furniture.

typically that doesn't happen until 

May!

My Bloomers....

Yep, we've had such Gorgeous weather here lately

temps between 84-86 degrees in fact

They say we were warmer then the

Caribbean

the other day!

So with the warm weather comes my

Bloomers....

 This beauty is right out our front door!

It flowers first, then it's done and is a big green bush.

 Here is a close-up of the flower....

 Then off to the side of the steps we have 

daffodils....

This one was laying on the ground,

so I picked it and brought it in and 

put it by my kitchen sink.

 Here are the others from the same bush

waiting to Bloom....

most likely today!

 This is a pretty little patch of violets....

weeds to my hubby.  

I'm sure he has already put something on them to make them

disappear!

 This is a wanna-be-a-bloomer....

This Rhododendron has to be at least

50 yrs old....maybe older.

It is Gorgeous when it Blooms....

Huge puff balls of Pink!

 Ahhhh....Yes, the Forsythia!

The first sign of Spring....

we have several in our yard.

These 2 are in the most shaded area....

 Well....

I guess Spring is here because they've

Bloomed!

And last for today....

Pachysandra....

little fuzzy white blooms.

What's Blooming in your corner of the world?