Happy Birthday, Steve and Springtime ! !

Tomorrow, the 8th, Steve will turn 60. So three of his brothers, his mom, and his niece decided to have an impromptu birthday party for him this Sunday. They brought over the dinner, cake and a card that one of them had designed and made at his office.

It says: Q: "How can you tell that Steve turned 60 ...

A: The "rack of his dreams" went from this .........to this!" If you look closely at the picture of the deer, it is two sets of antlers superimposed on each other. We all got a huge laugh out of it because, as I've written before, finding shed antlers IS Steve's passion.

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In fact, when he went out looking for sheds he found this trophy today! It's quite a fantastic find even though it looks a bit grotesque right now. The head is in the garage at the moment and tomorrow Steve will boil the skull in peroxide to remove all of the left over hair and flesh. (At a rummage sale some years ago I found the perfect things for getting out bits of brain etc. - a set of dental tools! They work great for getting into tiny spaces!)

This buck must have been hit by a car or died of an illness late winter. Other animals have cleaned him up pretty good, but as I was taking pictures it still was beginning to smell pretty gamy! I wish Steve's brothers would have been here today to admire this big guy and congratulate him on his find! ( Actually, they would have been grossed out - they don't quite understand the attraction to dropped antlers or smelly skulls with this kind of a nice "rack" on them!)

This is the best present Steve could have gotten!

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It was a busy weekend all around for us. Friday we both took a vacation day and worked in the yard and have nearly gotten everything cleaned up! The weather Friday and Saturday was perfect - not too hot, and not too cold - for doing yard work.

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Remember the picture last week of the Main Garden?? Well, here it is now:

All raked up and ready to go. You can barely see by this picture, but there are all sorts of things coming up. There don't seem to be any voles this year (at first I thought there were) but the deer have already walked into the second tier and eaten some of the few tulips I have.

These are so beautiful I had to post them again! The voles didn't leave me too many a few years back , but what I do have I really cherish. They are iris reticulata and are bulbs, not rhizomes like bearded iris are.

I walked around today and tried to get a sampling of all of the plants that were blooming.

Glory-of-the-Snow or chionodoxa are such wonderful flowers and reseed everywhere. They show up in the most unusual places . .

like between the cement slab and the glass doors into the house! I was amazed at this little thing!

This one found a nice home under a burning bush with a laid back frog.

Our first very first daffodils! These minis are being watched over by dour Mr.Toad. They are situated not far from the dryer vent and have a little head start.

Every morning I wake up expecting these to have been eaten by the deer or rabbits.

They are growing within the hosta border in the back and I have no idea how they got there.

Maybe this little angel had something to do with it??

Yes, she's back from a long winter of being buried in snow - and not too worse for the wear! Doesn't that look like an odd horse shoe around her? Actually it's an old chewed (by the small rodents) antler casting it's protective magic spell keeping her safe.

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Now to go inside and downstairs to take a look at how my little plants are doing:

The bigger seedlings are ground cover petunias. They spread a lot even when tiny. There are other types of petunias in there and farther back are the impatiens and a couple hollyhocks.

The last three pictures are of the various begonias. Haven't they gotten huge!!

Notice this wax begonia is beginning to bloom! Yikes, slow down. There is some type of mildewy problem going on with some of the leaves on the begonias, so I have a fan freshening the air. It's not blowing directly on them, but off the the side - just to get some air movement.

That is good for all the seedlings - it toughens them up.

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As I said the weekend was very busy and it flew by! I keep thinking today is Sunday! Great, this will be a short work week for me and if it warms up (it's windy and cold now) next weekend I'll be able to take care of the vegetable garden and maybe put in some onion sets.

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I "pass the time" when it is unpleasant and disagreeable; when it is

good, I do not want to pass it; I savor it, I hold it tight.

Michel De Montaigne - 1588

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Bye for now,

Alyssa