Flowers, flowers

Crabapple

And, oh, how I love the flowers.  Pretty much all of the flowering pear trees have lost their petals at this point.  Between the heat, then the wind and rain and now the heat again, it feels like the plants are trying very hard to keep up with the seasons.

daphne bushes

Our little daphne bushes are blooming.  They're so pretty.  We had a gift card (thank you!!) for a local nursery that we used to buy them a couple years ago.  I know daphne bushes can be finicky, but so far, so good and I'm so pleased.  The Hawthorne tree (yep, messy but so worth it) is covered in buds and the buds are finally becoming flowers and I just love the beauty.  (Was out on the driveway in my robe this morning taking pictures.)  The tri-color beech isn't as pretty as it should be.  We must not have given it enough iron this last season.  Will try to rectify that, but it will take another whole year to see if we get any results.  Sigh.  I wish I was better at growing things. The little crabapple tree has surpassed my hopes, considering it was so damaged during the roofing process.  And the peonies will be popping out soon.  spring flowers make the long winter bearable.

peonies

I snagged another bit of lilac from a bush overhanging the sidewalk and brought it home.  I keep smelling it - white lilac is so lovely. 

The garden is planted.  We have w-a-y more tomatoes than we should. Probably.  But The Husband does love growing them, and then does love giving them away.  The seeds haven't begun to sprout yet, we'll see how they do.  I'm fond of saying that every year the garden is a fresh experiment.  There's so little about the weather that is in our control.

Our hawthorne in bloom

And Mother's Day is over.  Every year I try to have few (if any) expectations.  It's such a hard day.  I hope my kids will all at some point forgive me for all the messing up I did while they were growing up.  And there was plenty of that, believe me.  All four of my children reached out with love, which I didn't at all expect.  And the day ended up ok. 

love the lilacs.

We've a kind of full week.  And next week, also.  But it's good to be busy.  Good have a bit of sociality (went to lunch with my cousin and her husband) and good to have hope for some bit of joy (and/or fun) in the near future.  I like feeling a bit more hopeful.