Hoarders

We started off summer vacation with the annual pizza and water balloon party at our friends' house after school last Friday.  They tell me that they filled 1500 water balloons!

The first Monday of vacation, the girls went through their school things.  It looked like an episode of "Hoarders" in their room for a while.  J actually (finally) went through all of her papers from middle school on.

Now we have already blown through the first week of vacation!  Granted, it was a busy week, with L joining a summer BBall league and having practice Sunday and 2 games Monday evening.  She also attended BBall camp at the University for 3 hours every day.

J attended the dance recital of a bunch of her friends, started on her summer reading list (recommended by her Literature teacher next year), and has been trying to get as much driving practice as possible.

We attempted to get the pool opened up on Saturday, but found that we didn't have enough diatomaceous earth for the filter, so had to make a fast trip up North to the pool supply store.  Once the pump was running, a hose blew out, and we had no replacements.  In lieu of another hour round trip north to the pool supply store, we ordered on Amazon, and the hoses were here in 2 days.  Finally we started adding the chemicals, but things are not quite where we need to be yet.  JP and I vacuumed it today anyway, and hopefully it will soon warm up enough to actually get in!

The garden is coming along slooooooowly.  Right now I am picking buckets full of strawberries every other day.  I think they are the nicest and biggest that we've ever had.

I have most of the garden beds planted.  One is broad forked, and I will plant sweet corn there in another week or two.  There are 3 more that still need to be completely cultivated.  To be honest, I'm not sure it's going to happen this year.  The blueberries will be ripe in another week or two.  I pruned them fairly heavily in Feb, but they still look loaded with berries.

I decided to put some hanging baskets with flowers on the veranda this year.  I think they look very nice.

JP did some Redneck pruning in the yard today.  One of the trees had a couple of limbs broken during a recent storm.  He couldn't reach them with the extension pruner, so got out his trusty shotgun and blew them off!

My lovely little yellow rose is blooming again.  I dug this one out of my friend's flower bed just days before they moved across the country to Washington State a couple of years ago, so I always think of her when it blooms.  In fact, she sent me something even more precious this morning...

J and I left the house at 5:20 this AM and drove up to the airport to meet her daughter, who arrived at 6:30 this morning after flying all night.  After a short visit over breakfast, we took her to surprise our friend, C.  It was a success!

C, who has been my 3rd/part time daughter since her mother/my friend passed away 8 years ago, is having a graduation party today.  She will be attending college in Seattle this Fall, and we will all miss her dearly.

Let me close with something I saw in the parking lot of the grocery store this week - someone loading groceries into the back of a hearse.

Late Bloomer

I took a closer look at my clematis this week, and noticed that the 3rd one (which hasn't bloomed for the past 8 or 9 years) is actually blooming!

I planted most of my tomatoes out in the garden today, along with several cucumbers.  I'm hoping to plant some more this weekend.

Tonight I took L to the Track & Field Banquet, where she promptly ditched me to hang out with her friends for the next 3 hours.  Gee whiz.

J is at the BIG Drama Cast Party tonight - they get to watch their video of "Mama Mia."

Tomorrow we have guitar and voice lessons, the annual "Sheep and Fiber Fest", and J is going to a birthday party featuring an escape room.

Only 2 more Fridays until school is over for the summer!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Strawberries in the garden - the babies

were just planted on Wed!

Peas in the garden...

These irises from my Grandmother are

taking over this bed - there are also daffodils,

Solomon's Seal, daisies, columbine & salvia

The asparagus bed

Bleeding Hearts in the shade bed

Clematis on the arbor

Blueberries in the garden

Spring Feast

We had a lovely little feast of Springtime treats for dinner this evening

Fresh asparagus from the garden, grilled chicken breasts, and fried morel mushrooms gifted to us!

Mama Mia...Where Has the Time Gone?

We are about to enter the final month of school, and I'm beginning to wonder if there will actually be a time when I have NOTHING TO DO?!

I should have been posting pictures of L running track, but the season has passed me by and her final meet is Saturday.

I should have put up pictures from the AMAZING school musical, "Mama Mia", in which J sang and danced her heart out, but it is long over.

I should have noted that we finished 2 more puzzles, numbers 17 and 18, (the final one of which was in honor of "Mama Mia.")

Norman Rockwell paintings

Sunset over a Greek Island

Maybe I should talk about the long, long drive down to NC over Easter Break, and the wonderful visit that we had with JP's family.  I could note that we stopped at one of our old favorites, Lexington BBQ, where I found this pig.

I could also mention the excellent symphony that we attended last weekend, which featured the soprano, Sierra Boggess (the voice of Disney's "The Little Mermaid"),  and I could make note of the European looking gate into a hidden garden that we discovered in the most unexpected place.

Instead, I will show pictures of what Spring is bringing to Poplar Ridge:

Wind...this sheet has actually blown OFF the clothesline,

 and is stuck in a tree about 10 feet behind it!

Dogwood, Redbud, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Bleeding Heart

I hope that Spring is bringing green, blooms and sunshine to your neck of the woods as well!

Signs of Spring

I feel like I haven't been able to catch my breath lately!

L slid straight from basketball into Track & Field - in fact, they overlapped for a week or so!  Her first meet is tomorrow.

J's spring musical opens next week, so the rehearsals are getting longer and more frequent.  In between times, she has participated in another open mic, as well as continuing her music and dance lessons.

There are many days when I need to be in more than one place at a time!

The weather, however, is becoming milder and milder, and signs of Spring abound.  The hellebore and crocus are blooming.  Besides being covered with buds, my 2 weeping cherry trees are decorated with 17 preying mantis egg sacks between them.

The seeds that we planted a few weeks ago are up.

We completed puzzle number 16:

Snow and Grow

We have woken to a couple of inches of snow several days this week.  This morning was another one of those days, and I have recently returned from taking the girls to school on a 2 hour delay.  I am hoping that we don't end up having any more snow days, or our Spring Break will slowly dwindle away.

Things are looking up, however.  We survived February, and are just about 2 weeks away from Spring.  With that thought in mind, L planted about 90 seeds over the weekend - tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and melons.  It is a couple of weeks later than I usually get my starts going, but better late than never.

Speaking of starting tomatoes, I found this little tomato plant growing inside my tomato this weekend!

With all of the wind (knocked out internet, cell service and power on Sunday and Monday), snow, and forecasted single digit temperatures, it is always a struggle to keep the outdoor animals warm, and with liquid water and access to their food.  Apparently the wild beasties have roamed a bit closer, looking for easy food as well.  I found these prints on the lid to the bucket of kitty food - looks like a raccoon to me!

L has her first Track practice this evening.  She has never done this sport before, but she did great at that 5 K last November.  Of course, she is not completely done with Basketball yet, although her team played their final game on Saturday.  They will have playoffs this weekend - sometimes these end up being VERY long days!

I have spent the winter exercising on the elliptical and occasionally the rowing machine, instead of venturing out of doors to exercise.  (That stress fracture in November convinced me that my running days are over.)  I have one final episode of "Midsomer Murders" to watch while I exercise - I have watched all 19 seasons over the past year!    I have learned a couple of things from watching:  there are an astounding number of murders in tiny English villages, and a large number of medical people with knowledge of medicines that can be used in poisonings seem to be involved.  I'll have to move on to yet another British TV show after this, since I've exhausted the "Call the Midwife", "Midsomer Murders", and "Sherlock" episodes.

I need to close and get my house cleaning done before all craziness erupts this evening- J has an appointment, vocals and choreography, finishing up at 8.  L has Track practice, followed by a parents meeting, and voice lessons.  Whew!

Just a final note to say that I am changing the status of my blog to private at the request of J.  I don't believe that this will affect anyone who actually reads this, but will not let it pop up for viewing for others.  Let me know if there are problems!