The Great Outdoors

Hey!

Hope this note finds everyone well!!

It is spring in Kansas!!

I love the few days that we have here when it is deliciously warm with only a very slight breeze!

That doesn't happen very often!

So when it does, I am eager to get out and see what is popping up!

It seems that we are at a place now where new things are happening in the garden every day!

You can see my little herd of goldfish and koi. We have had a lot of trouble with our pumps getting clogged due to the roots of the water lilies. .and as some of the pumps have failed, not enough aeration has gotten a few of the biggest fish! You can see a small clump of the lilies in the lower left. .Those lilies had green leaves ALL. WINTER. LONG!! Crazy! Hoping for flowers early!

On the south side of the pond, I planted two of these little ornamental cherry bushes last spring. I babied them along all summer. .and they are leafing now and full of bloom! The butterflies have already noticed them! They will be very showy as they get bigger.

Here are a couple of honeysuckle bushes. They are producing a nice little bit of privacy for the yard. .

They don't smell good. And that bothered me at first. .

But they are lit up with these tiny red blooms all over. .and they will form little red berries that the birds seem to eat. They were described as good plants for nature. .And it seems they are. I am hoping that they might catch the attention of any stray hummingbirds heading north!

Tulips are starting their show.

I love that they do their thing in stages! It seems that always a new one is blooming as the old ones finish!

These are all in the memory garden. The Blue Atlas Cedar tree that anchors that garden got a good case of winter burn a few months ago when the temperature hit negative digits. I am not sure that it will recover, but we are watering and waiting. It will be a big loss if it dies!

At the back of the memory garden I put in 12 new roots of asparagus last spring from Walmart. One bag of them never did a thing all summer, so I was convinced that the bag was bad. There are 3 roots of them that have spears. .and the other bag has several roots starting too. I am super excited about them. .as grilled or roasted asparagus has become one of my favorite spring time foods!

The lilacs will be blooming early too! This little bush is loaded.

Last month when the weather was getting warm, Jeremy let our outdoor wood stove go out. This is how we heat the house and the greenhouse. With the exception. .that the house. .is also on propane if the wood heater isn't going! One night it got COLD. .and because we hadn't thought about turning the heater back on,  it froze every tomato plant in the place. .got the majority of both huge ferns. .and some of the succulents didn't make it out alive either!

GRR! Live and learn right!?

And the redbud tree. .which became a bush when the main stem died! They are one of my favorite spring blooms!

We were very fortunate a few weeks ago to miss the fires! It was probably 15 miles from us. On my way to work, I drove past a couple of homes that had been burned down in Oklahoma. It has been raining today--with expected rains to continue for a few days, leaving us with significant amounts of liquid gold. We are thankful for that!

The older boys were both home for parts of their spring break last week. We enjoyed their company! Cami and I went with some girlfriends to a barn quilt painting class on Saturday.

We had a BLAST!

Well, after the lady in charge helped Cami and I get our patterns drawn on that is!

My mind has NEVER computed geometry. .

And due to the portion of my personality that ALWAYS has to pick out the hardest route. .

The designs we chose weren't simple blocks and triangles!

So 15 minutes into the project, my blood pressure was BOILING and I was wondering what kind of crazy dumb thing I had gotten us into!!

Cami and Cashton worked with the help of the lady in charge.

They enjoyed the experience and had a fun day!

And despite how the morning started. .they really did turn out phenomenally well!!

Here we are with our finished boards! Cami's was a 1x1 and mine was a 2 foot square. They are still propped up in the living room. .with the hope of being hung this week!

She and I are going to have a lot of fun doing girl things together!

I just know it!

Now, if I can just get her interested in pulling weeds!

Thanks for stopping by!

Will try and keep the garden pictures coming!

And maybe a family update!