Apple Blossom Azalea

What type of bulbs do you have in your garden?  When do you plant them?

I lived outside of Atlanta for a few years and missed Spring bulbs immensely. I found a book at the library on what types of bulbs could be grown in Georgia climate and found it was as easy as in the Midwest.  The secret, I had to refrigerate the bulbs for six weeks in the winter and then place them into the soil in early February and lo and behold I had tulips and jonquils just like I had always enjoyed in my Midwest garden.

If you live in the southern regions of the States or any other part of the world where the temperature never drop low enough to cool the soil try the refrigerator trick and you can have them Spring or Fall.

I have so many spring flowers I love I am going to share a few this week.

Creeping phlox is one of my favorite in early spring…and in the background the crimson azaleas are in the shade and you can barely see the buds ready to burst on the rhododendron.

Magnolia Blooms

Let’s keep looking at these reminders of what we can expect in just a few weeks!!!

What is your favorite season of the year?  Mine has always been Spring.  I love the smell in the air of Spring rain, the beauty of trees that bud and leaf in a matter of days, bulbs that miraculously surface and burst into welcome bloom.

Of course it is a season that has a “to do” list for most of us, so why not get ready now.  It is not too early to begin planning for Spring.  Here in the Midwest early garden planting of peas, onions, potatoes, and lettuce for example normally are planted on or near  St Patrick’s Day.  If your a vegetable gardener make sure the ground is ready, have the seeds on hand and get the hoe and gloves out  you will need them very soon now.

Take inventory of what needs to be done in your lawn and garden both.  What shrubs require Spring pruning, do you have some tree limbs you have been putting off trimming back, do you need to aerate the lawn, clean up garden pots for replanting?

The list can be endless but if you have a list and check it off with some “honey do” or child bribery for a movie night to help along the way it will all be done in time for you to sit back with a smile and watch the early Spring flowers show off.

Don’t forget our feathered friends need us to give their homes a housecleaning too.

My children as grown adults recount some of their most pleasant family memories were in the time we spent preparing garden and flower beds.

Spring IS just around the corner friends.

I am thankful that God is so good and gives us such beautiful things to love and appreciate.

I am constantly awed by His sense of creativity.

All I have to do is look around to see His incredible works of art.

Happy Sunday my dear friends!

Ok gals, I don’t know about you, but SNOW has become a really bad 4 letter word for me. I know I’m not alone. I saw the weather map this morning and we’ve all been getting dumped on it seems. This is what we woke up to this morning in our part of the midwest.

So! Let’s do something to perk our little selves up. This is always my answer. A pot of blooming bulbs, in this case hyacinths which are incredibly fragrant. They are also hearty bulbs that can be planted in the ground (as soon as it thaws) and will rebloom year after year. A nice little gift that keeps on giving and I really like that!

I’ve also bought tulips and daffodils over the years too and have done the same thing by planting them in my gardens. Of course fresh cut also works to boost the spirits. No one ever made up a rule that we can’t buy ourselves flowers ladies I get these for less than $10 at our local Price Chopper Grocer. Worth every single penny.

One of the best splurges I ever made for myself is buying a photo frame that holds lots of photos and is decent size. I keep a folder on my PC called “digital frame”. Every time I take pictures, I select a few of my favorites to put in the folder.

Then every so often I update the frame and all my pictures are already ready to go. You’ll find family photos galore; but you’ll also find lots of pictures like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Ah, such pretty things to look at over and over again as they rotate through my personal picture show. Tell us how you take time to enjoy all the photos you take…scrapbook, slide shows, photo frame, printed pictures on your walls?

I know it is too early to be thinking about Spring. I mean, really, we have 2 feet of snow on the ground, an arctic blast settling in the next few days with temperatures below zero, and more snow on the way.

Well honestly I think it is the PERFECT time to think of Spring, kind of a mental vacation don’t you think?

So out come the gardening books and seed magazines, not so much for buying but for dreaming of warmer, more colorful days.

I was browsing online (did I tell you I’m an avid online shopper?) and ran across these adorable gift tags that keep on giving. You place them in soil, water them and they grow. I think they’d make adorable tags for Mother’s Day gifts this year! Made by Green Post.

Well if gardening isn’t your thing, but you still need a mental vacation, maybe this will help (Feel free to right click any of these photos and save as your screensaver!)

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ”

~Stanley Horowitz

Very close to our house, at the bottom of the hill, we have a park system that spans acres and acres. It’s a nice little perk for the neighborhood we live in. This time of year nature really starts to put on her coat of many colors and makes a perfect opportunity to grab your camera and start snapping photos while on a nice, relaxing stroll through the woods.

What is around your neighborhood? We want to see!

Join the rest of us at Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House and see other beautiful mosaics while sharing your very own with us too!

Want to dress up a patio, you should consider putting ceramic tile on the floor.  My concrete patio was built with a spacer right down the middle of the 16×20 slab of concrete.  Half of the patio is under the roof and the other half exposed.

In June 2008, I told Deb I was considering painting  it as it looked so ugly.  She thought that sounded like a good idea, so off to Home Depot to figure out what would be involved to paint it and get a finish that would be long lasting with minimal maintenance.

Long story short, it was going to be expensive, filling cracks, priming, paint, finish.  Deb asked if maybe I should price outdoor tile instead.  I began pricing tile and ended up buying an inexpensive natural color pattern from Home Depot.  Julie and Deb both showed up to lay the tile where I had marked off the layout and we began slapping on the glue.  Definitely hard work on the back and knees but we had a lot of laughs along the way.  It took several hours to grout (using a large beater that fit in the drill) and seal the grout but the final  results were amazing and well worth our hard efforts!

I recently sold my home and the realtors and potential buyers all commented on how the patio created the feeling of an additional room to my home. The patio was nice before, but after the tile it felt like a resort retreat with rattan furniture, flower beds all around and the beautiful and durable ceramic tile that looked like it had always been there.