That's the word that comes to mind these days. Winter wasn't as dreary and grey as last year, but that doesn't diminish the glory of spring...the daffodils are up and smiling, the pear trees and pink magnolias are showing color, everything is fresh and greening up. Woot! And there's nothing like the smell of hyacinth....yum.

My dh came home a couple of weeks ago and wanted to till the garden. Normally that takes some thought and preparation on my part, but I grudgingly agreed. I shouldn't have. While I was trying to dig up some canna lily tubers that showed up last year, my dh plowed across the front of the garden instead of going the other way. So it ended up with me bawling my eyes out, pawing in the dirt to see if there were any peony tubers left, a fresh burst of tears with each broken pink bud that showed up. I had such a hard time with them last year...not knowing what they were and almost killing them, pinching the flower buds off to help them get established. *sigh* Some things were not meant to be. There were probably 15-20 tubers across the front fence, and I just had it pitcured in my mind with those beautiful blossoms nodding over the fence. Boo-hoo. I'm still trying to get over it.

Fortunately there are others scattered around the yard for me to look forward to. The buds have popped up and some leaves are starting to uncurl. It's all so exciting!

I even noticed some tulip buds starting to pop out...won't be long now. I need to remember to take a picture of the front of the house while it's all pretty. There are lots of daffodils to brighten things up. I'm hoping to get some popsicle sticks to label where the bulbs are and what kind, so I can split some of them up for next year. A lot of them are in tight clusters and need a bit of room, I think. Plus, I always think about landscaping ideas around this time of year, on days when winter tightens it's grip and I'd rather be indoors.

I think I have solidified my idea of the color scheme to shoot for, so now can begin compiling lists of plants to find and start marking which ones to relocate in the yard. I need to give some iris attention...it's at the back of a deep bed and needs a place where it can be seen. All that I have are yellow, but the neighbor shared some periwinkle blue with me that will look really nice mixed in.

This house is so perfect for me (us). Light green with peachy-orange under the eaves. So anyway, my idea is to do yellows and oranges, with purples/blue for contrast with maybe a bit of red thrown in for some kick. There are already some things here with those colors, lilies in particular, so that gives me a head start. Especially since we don't have money to devote to landscaping this year. Hopefully I can find a few dollars here and there to buy a few perennials. I was so hoping to get the yard in shape before baby arrives. So I only have a few months to work on it before the garden demands more attention and I'm so fat that moving becomes difficult! I was joking the other day that I'll have to make the garden rows twice as wide this year, just so I can move around!

My dh said the buds on our snow goose cherry are getting bigger...I expect blooms in a few more weeks. Middle of April or so? I can't wait...I hope the neighbors or whoever sees it will enjoy and like the choice we made for our "replacement" tree.

I need to check the Farmer's Almanac for good planting days this week. I managed to get some sugar snaps in the ground, but have so much more I'd love to plant! Kale, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, collards, beets, turnips, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. The last three I bought starts for...we'll see how they do. The cabbage did alright last year, but I need to be on top of things and dust with diatomaceous earth (DE) to try to keep the worms away. Hopefully starting them early will make them happier and avoid some heat.

So anyway, those are my ramblings this morning. The sun is out and I need to work on an upholstery project I've been stalling on. I moved everything to the "sun porch" where it's warm and bright, so no excuses for me today. *grin*

Oh...brief update on my pregnancy...I'm at sixteen and a half weeks and feeling great. The midwife came and checked everything last week, and we got to record the heartbeat. So amazing. My iron is a little low, so I'm working on that...pulling out the cast iron pan to season and trying to eat blackstrap molasses. The most fun things is I think I'm starting to feel the baby. Just the last day or so I have started to feel little thumps or almost twitches. I'm not positive yet, but it's exciting anyway. Hopefully it's not just in my head because I want it so bad! *lol*

Well, toodles...