And look who I saw poking up through the mulch!!!  It is the Columbine that my Sunnybrook friend gave me when we moved from Virginia Beach in 2004.  It comes back every year, and she seeds like crazy.  We have this stuff all over the place.  I will show you again when she blooms.  That is why we let her stay.  

 

I don't let the new plants stay in the arugula bed, because I don't want it to get into my cuttings.  I don't know if it's poisonous, but the word "toxic" does show up in the wildflower books.  So, I just let that be what it is, and keep it out of my edible beds.  Otherwise, I love it.  The flowers are so pretty.

 

I hope your weather this week is as beautiful as ours.  

 

 

HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!

 

And it's time to plant seeds.  Today is the best time to plant seeds for tomatoes, peppers, and lots of other stuff.  

 

We will plant seeds today, because it takes about 8-12 weeks for them to get big enough to go out into the garden.  It's a process.  We plant the seeds into flats and put them on heat mats.  Then when they are big enough we will transplant them into 6-packs, and keep them under grow lights.  And then when the ground is warm enough, they will go into the garden.  

 

I guess we could just buy the 6-packs at Home Depot, but this way I get to choose the varieties of seeds that we like.  And I don't mind the process.  Actually, I like it.  

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

I don't know about you, but I love a rainy day project.  It was too wet to get outside in the garden yesterday, so Jon read a book, and I got busy in the sewing room.  I started this project a few days ago, as you can see.  Everything is cut, and some of the blocks are made.  Now they just have to be assembled.  That is the fun part.

 

I had a good pattern, so it just flowed.  And here is the outcome:

 

 

It is so funny, well, maybe not all that funny, but I can never tell how it's going to turn out.  I thought it would be totally different.  I've only been quilting for 21 years, but I am still amazed with the outcome.  Sometimes I like it, and sometimes, not so much.  I guess I will just keep trying.  

 

I'll let you know....

 

HAPPY WINTER!!!

 

And ME!!!

 

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

 

On our loop walk yesterday, I noticed the Bradford Pears have already set their spring flower buds.  And that always makes me think of FAITH.  They are reminding us that spring is coming, and we are ALL ready!!!

 

 

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!!

 

We saw this the other day in the blueberry bushes.  In this picture, it looks huge, but it is only about the size of the top joint of your thumb, and about the same shape.  It is the egg case of a praying mantis.  I've told you this before, but each egg case holds about 100 baby mantids.  We love finding these things, because we love praying mantids.  They eat bugs that eat our plants, so we love them.  

 

And I love seeing them:  at first they are so tiny, then get really big.  Very cool insects.  I hope we can be there when they emerge:  that is awesome!  I'll take pix if we catch it.  Wish me luck.  ;)

 

 

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!!

 

The best time to prune the blueberry bushes is when they are dormant;  which is winter.  So on Sunday, when the weather was warm and spring-like, we got out there and cut back the old canes and the branches that were covering the walkways.  It seemed like we were cutting back a lot, but when we were finished, you couldn't tell that we had done anything.  

 

I guess that's a good thing.  Hacked back bushes look terrible, and ours are still attractive.  

 

And if all goes well this spring, we will be picking blueberries come Fathers Day.  Yay!!!

 

 

HAPPY WINTER!!!

 

I don't know for sure, but I thought you might like to see this page from the Five Forks Website.  This is where I enter my blogs.  This is where I can view, edit, add, and delete blog posts.  The part of this page that I love is watching that Active number grow.  I circled it in red.  As you can see it is up to 2101.  That means that you can go back into the archives, and read 2,101 active blogs.  I can't take credit for 34 of them, but I wrote the rest.  That's a bunch, since 2017.

 

I hope you enjoy reading them, as much as I have loved writing them.

 

 

HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!

 

According to Punxsutawney Phil, we should be looking at Spring in 5 more weeks.  

 

In the meantime, I will be looking for signs of Spring.  Here's one:  flower buds on the Mahonia.  This is one of my favorite plants in the park.  It is interesting 12 months of the year.  I always love checking on her.  

 

 

HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!

 

 

 

The snow is all gone, but look what we got yesterday.  The trees were flocked!!!  

 

It was still only 27 degrees at noon, and it was like a fairyland.  Beautiful!!!

 

OK, enough of this,  I'm ready for spring. 

 

 

HAPPY WINTER!!!