Blooming in Hooterville

Stick a Lilly in your garden and be Happy! 
If you remember from an earlier post, I mentioned my "Hope" garden.  Well here are three examples of  "Hope"  in my garden! 
DH decided that he would assist me a couple of years back and mowed, moved and unearthed my growing patch.  Please let me state that yes there were a lot of weeds in that patch, but there were a few non weed plants.  The pictures shown here are the remnants of that patch.  A happy resilient group of Lillies.  Kinda a wrong name for those blooming plants if you ask me.  They should have a strong name like gladiator or something more creative.

All is not lost though.  The local garden centers have placed their blooming plants on clearance. Which I have taken full advantage of.  I have purchased several flowering bushes and perenials that will not only bloom in spring, but summer and fall.  I have also been hosting some winged creatures that has made my little backyard blossom with activity.  I have a determined hummingbird that is kinda aggressive.  I spotted a dragonfly......one of my favorites.....resting near our deck.  Also, colorful butterflies have been fluttering around checking out the new residents in our backyard.  

We have spent more time this year in our backyard thanks to the weather cooperating and the humidity not being out of site.  Hopefully one of the next few posts will be about another activity we've got going on in our backyard!

Oh the Places We've Been





Have you ever felt like you were a part of the Dr. Seuss Book "Oh the Places You'll Go"?  I believe we experienced every page.  We traveled to visit our newest grandson and his parents by car. (Just a couple sleeps away and a lot of road time) We returned via Amtrak. (Just a couple sleeps away and a lot of rail time) An exciting adventure, full of beautiful scenery and some not so pretty.  But none of it looked near as good as the green grass of  HOME!  The closer we got to home, the greener it got and boy green looked good to us!

 Its probably just a mom thing, but it was good to see that our kids, even though they are adults, were safe and sound.       

Our visit with our kids was a good one.  It was nice to see where they had put down some temporary roots.  DH and I had never traveled that far together in our many years of marriage.  And I might say that we had a great time together.  One interesting story -on the second night of our trip via car, we stayed at a hotel and our room was on the second floor.  The next morning, DH was loading the car and I was doing  a once over on the room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything and low and behold in came a small white curly haired dog with a couple of pony tails......he looked just like my dog I had left with our oldest son and his family-2 sleeps away!  I picked up this little ball of white fur and started talking with him, wondering where in the world he came from, then in walks DH.  His first question was, "Where did he come from?"   Both of us a little dazed and thinking that son #1 was going to appear at any moment, came back to reality noting that this little maltese was not our Solomon.  After a little lovin' on the dog, which we later learned his name to be Pirate, we chuckled making comment about this dog magically appearing in our room and how my mom would love this little guy because of his name. (She had been wearing a patch for some eye trouble she had been experiencing, thus the pirate connection.  arrgggh)  We began to walk out of our room, only to see a man that could have been a pirate and a disgruntled pirate at that, walking toward the three of us.  We had a very quick conversation ending with him asking for his dog and telling us that he had another maltese waiting for him that some lady was holding for him while he looked for Pirate. Poor little Pirate!  We should have taken the little fella as a stow away.
Even though we were 2 sleeps away from home, thoughts of home were with us! Here are a few pictures of the sights we saw.

                                            

Dad and son!

Well worth the trip!!