Her only job

Was to give me something to concentrate on for the past year. It worked, some. 

She has given me countless hours of pleasure. We are very best friends.  Right now she is in her favorite place. Beside me.  Wherever  I am, she is beside me. I do not let her sleep with me, but her bed is right beside mine. She usually waits until I go to bed and she never gets up in the morning without waking me first. Kind of rough now that it is Spring and it gets light much earlier.

Sometimes she crawls up under one of my couches.  She likes it there because it cradles her.

I have the bad habit of laying knitting needles or crochet hooks down on my couch. They often fall down the back of my couch and into the bottom lining.

I could not reach them by putting my hand down the crack,

So, I had the brainy idea of cutting a slit in the bottom fabric so I could reach up and retrieve whatever I had lost.
Until Pepper came, it was just fine.  The slits were not visible. Can't say that now.  For some odd reason, there is a sag in the fabric now.

All I can say is, who would have thought I would fall in love with this tiny face?

Well,I did and that is all there is to that.

I really do not know where to pick up after I have been away for a while.

  Maybe with something bright and cheery. My Garden.

My Wisteria. It is growing on my back fence.

I have a very small garden. It is only 14 feet deep by 60 feet wide. I try to optimize as much space as possible. I have perennials and every spring, I plant many pots of annuals.

One of my Irises. They are so elegant to me.

This Lilac tree came from a sucker on my mother's tree.

This is an Azalea my mother gave me. It is so fragrant. 

One of my pots.  This one is full of Million Bells. I can hardly wait until it fills the pot and flows over the sides.

My brother built me two of these planters.  I have tried to get him to build me at least two more but he is so busy he does not seem to have time for it. I usually have geraniums in them along with the petunias.  This year I have Petunias, Million Bells, Bacopa, and one more that I cannot think of the name right now. 

The first full bloom on my Clematis. It is just beautiful.  White with a blush of lavender.

My mother gave me two Poppy plants when we moved here. I came home from work one evening and Stan was working in the yard. After a moment, I realized I could not see either of my poppy plants.  I asked if he had pulled them. He did not think so, but he did take two thistles from this bed.  I was able to save them and now they have almost taken over the yard.  I love them though.  Anyone want seeds? I will have plenty.

My Wigelia. We have to keep this one cut back quite a bit. It is almost to big for my tiny side yard.

One of the heavily loaded branches.

Another gorgeous Iris.

My Clematis in full bloom. I planted two plants when we moved here.  One on the South side of the house and this one on the East side.  This one is thriving and beautiful. The one on the South side is just a spindle of a plant. I am thinking about cutting it way back.  Does anyone know if this is possible, or should I just take it out and start over?

Dutch Iris. So delicate.

Columbine. This one is planted beside my yard swing. It has climbed up the post and along my fence.

More Poppy's and White Iris.  Can you see the plethora of buds on these plants?

My double Peony.  It should be open within days. (If the sun ever comes out.)

I have several plants still waiting to be potted. Hanging planters to finish to hang from my fence. A broken fountain that I generally fill with Impatient's. They are out on my deck waiting to be planted.  Some Basil and Pole Beans to plant.

I hope the weather man is right and we will be seeing an end to all of the rain we have been having and I will be able to get out and finish.

One of my Hydrangea's. This one did not bloom well last year. This year it is loaded, much to my joy.
The birdbath is my newest addition to my garden.

Computer fried.

My laptop died last week. Fortunately it is still under warranty. I sent it in for repair on Monday. They said it could take up to two weeks. Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!! I feel lost without it. I am using the husband's I-pad, but saying I hate it is an understatement. I was going to post some pictures of my garden but I can't seem to do it from here.
Hope to be back in the saddle by next week. Don't think I could last much longer.

She would have been 43 today

Instead, she celebrated her first birthday in heaven.
I went to bed last night terrified for today. I expected to be a basket case.
Instead, I kept busy today and did not dwell.
I had a moment when I was in the garage and a chair I had recovered for her is in there.
I did sit in it and spent a few moments feeling sorry for me and shed a few tears.
Happy Birthday sweet daughter of mine.  I miss you so much, but I am so thankful you are not in pain.
I am so happy you got to spend this birthday with Grandma and Aunt Meg.

Africa revisited.

I am going back in a year.

They beg us to not forget them.

Looking West from Tanzania into the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Across Lake Tanganika

I am not looking for sympathy

Just wondering.
Does it ever quit hurting?

Today was such a beautiful sunny day

I spent the day out in my tiny yard, getting it cleaned up and ready for summer flowers. 

I hung my hummingbird feeder up and had several visitors.  I tried to take a picture of one, but they did not totally trust me, yet, and flew away as soon as they saw me.

Earlier I posted a picture of my weeping willow that Stan had cut back to almost nothing last fall.

Lucky for him, it is getting leaves and will probably be just fine.

I started a branch from a tree my uncle had planted about 60 years ago.

My wisteria has a few flower buds on it.  I am a bit worried because the main older tree does not seem to be blooming.  It has not bloomed for a couple of years. I cut it way back last year hoping that would help. It had a few flowers last year but I cannot see any on it this year. These flowers are on a younger shoot of the tree.

I love using galvanized buckets for my hanging gardens. I only have two and want to buy three more for this summer. I got the two I have ready to receive flowers for the summer.

I started another project. I will have to show you once it is finished.  Won't try to explain.

My white clematis is loaded with bloom.  Making up for not  blooming at all last summer.

Mama Robin is on her nest.  You can see her tail poking up from her nest, it looks like it is touching the branch above it.

Three sweet little eggs.

I found this in my yard

Remember last week when I posted that Spring was finally finding it's to the beautiful Puget Sound area?

I posted a picture of my pretty Cherry tree in the back corner of my yard. If you look closely, you can see the two 4x4"s in the ground and the one that goes across the top, covered by the branches of the Cherry tree. This is where I go to relax during the summer. It is my swing.

Today was a nice sunny day and I though I would go sit on my swing for a while and enjoy the warm. As I got close to the swing, I was dive bombed by a Robin.  Looking up to see why she acted so startled, I saw this nest on the cross bar of my swing.

I had to wait for Stan to come home and set a ladder for me so I could get up and get the picture of the inside of the nest.  I have declared the swing off limits to the kids until this little family hatches and moves out.
We are very excited to follow the progression from eggs to birds.
Is anyone else nurturing/hosting a little family in their yard?