Early signs of Spring...

Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees,

Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.

                                              --WILLIAM COWPER

Good morning friends! I hope that this finds you well and thinking of Spring, as I am. We have had warm weather for the past few days, so I took advantage of that by doing some yard clean-up. While out there, I took some early Spring photos of some scenes below The Perch.

First leaves on the crab apple tree...



Buds on the plum tree, and the greening

of the grass...

Daffodils in full bloom...

White hellebore planted in the shade garden.

These start blooming in late Winter, and continue

blooming up until the weather gets really hot...

Daylilies starting to peek out of the soil...

Angelique tulips popping up. I start tulips in pots

because the moles and voles in these parts tend

to devour tulip bulbs...

Getting ready to start some dahlias.

 I cut up cheap mini blinds from the dollar

store for plant stakes, write the plant info on

them in pencil, and when I transfer the plants

to the garden, the stakes go with them. I find

that they will last for years, and pencil works

better than markers. Plus, they are so

much cheaper than the "real" plant stakes

that you purchase. (I have this thing about

being able to identify all the plants in my garden.

So what if in Winter all you see is a bunch of

white plant stakes sticking out of the soil?!)...

Well, I had my root canal on Monday, and aside from a headache that didn't end until this morning, my tooth and I are doing well! Hope you are too! Thanks for coming by.