It's Finally Here

4/22/14

    

Yoshino cherry

     We had two 80 degree days last week and everything that had been holding back suddenly bloomed.  Here is what happened in the yard this past week.  The Yoshino cherry trees in the yard finally opened their buds.

All the hyacinths bloomed.

Then we had two nights of below freezing temps with rain/sleet and wind.  All the hyacinths were blown down. 

The cherry trees lost half their blossoms.  They were beautiful for two days.

The pink dogwood tree buds looked like this a week ago.

Now the pink dogwood is in bloom.

The grape hyacinths just bloomed in the tulip garden.

And three tulips just opened today in the tulip garden.

     I am waiting and watching for the rest of the tulips to begin opening.  There is much more activity in the back and side gardens which I will tell you about in the next post.  So much happening at once.  The garden centers finally opened around here on Easter weekend.  They are bursting with gorgeous flowers.  I went over today to my favorite garden center just to look around and get ideas.  I just couldn't leave without buying some flowers.  I ended up with 18 plants when I left there.

Cold and Snowy

1/5/14

Yoshino cherry tree

      I have had enough of this weather.

Arizona desert

     Almost makes me want to return to the heat and sunshine of Arizona where the sun shines 85% of the time.

backyard deck

 
     We have had single digit temperatures at night, and it has been in the teens for a couple of days.  The side streets are sheets of ice.  When I was walking the dog yesterday, a car coming toward us started to skid.  It spun  completely around back and forth across the road a couple of times while heading straight toward us.  I ran, dragging the dog way into a neighbor's yard.  Luckily, the driver got control of the car just at the edge of the yard and was able to bring it to a stop.

    

back yard

     We were lucky we only had about four inches of snow. here.  But the weather forecasters are predicting a much worse cold snap come Tuesday.  Temperatures are supposed to be colder than they have been in about 40 years.  I was reading in the paper that Lake Michigan has ice and should freeze over.  I can remember about 40 years ago living in the Chicago area shortly after my husband and I were married.  We lived there during one of the coldest decades they had there in a long time.  I can remember Lake Michigan freezing over every winter, and people could walk and skate out on the ice.

the beach

     Fortunately, my family and I are escaping to the warmth and sunshine of Ft. Myers beach in two weeks.  I can't wait.  Happy New Year to all!