Tulips Are My Favorite

And tulips, children love to stretch
Their fingers down, to feel in each
Its beauty's secret nearer.
–Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A Flower in a Letter.

I'm not quite sure what it is about tulips that I love so much, but they are my favorite of all the flowers. Whatever it is, I think they are a miracle. I thought I'd take you on a little garden tour and show you what is blooming in my yard. These pretty pink ones are Apple Blossom tulips. The pretty burgundy foliage on the left is a peony, which I also really love.

These are parrot tulips, although I'm not sure of the variety because I ordered them in a grab bag. I love the pretty daffodils, rimmed in apricot, behind them, but again, they came from a grab bag so I don't know their name either. On the left is a bleeding heart, which has gotten really big. Does anyone need a cutting?

Once upon a time, I knew the name of these pretty purple tulips, but I don't remember now. The red parrot tulips are also from the grab bag, but I think they are a different variety than the others. It is hard to see from the pictures, but the color isn't quite the same.

This one is called Blue Diamond.

I love orange flowers. This one is the Donald Duck tulip. It was bred for his 50^th {I think} birthday.

A neighbor brought me this bulb, so I don't know the variety, but it is absolutely gorgeous. The picture doesn't quite do justice to the beautiful apricot color.

I thought I'd try something a little artsy-smartsy here. Not sure it worked out how I wanted, but I love these delicate pink tulips.

The bulbs are getting a little crowded. For the past several years, I keep thinking I need to dig them up and spread them out, but then these beautiful groups of a dozen or more tulips come up and I can't bear to separate them because I know it will be a few years before they will multiply enough to grow in pretty bouquets again. I think that it really needs to be done this year, though. The tulips won't last much longer so I'll enjoy them while I can, and when they start to fade I'll make a little time to rearrange them. It will be fun to have a new tulip show to see next year.

Random Bits: Vol. 8

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. –Mark Twain

Identity Crisis
March is having an identity crisis. I wish it would mistake itself for June instead of December.

{We woke up to a good 4" of snow today, completely covering all the spring bulbs that had started blooming. It continued to snow until nearly 2:00 pm. Then the sun came out and by 4:30 pm had melted most of the snow away.}

{Sidebar: I can't take credit for that beautiful bit of prose. A friend posted that on Facebook before the snow and it was so perfect I had to use it.}

The Continuing Saga of the Tortoise and the Snail, or Friday Night Sew-In Progress Report
My goal for Friday Night Sew-In was to finish the straight-line quilting in the white zig-zags of Miss Butterfly's quilt and to wind the bobbins for the FMQ in the colored zig-zags. I had three full zig-zag rows, two half rows {at the top and bottom}, plus one line of stitching left in a row to finish. I did make progress, but I still have one complete zig-zag and a half zig-zag along the bottom of the quilt. My bobbins are all ready to go, though. Never mind that three of the four were already wound.

In the past, I've never tried to strategically place my embroidered quilt labels on the back of the quilt. I just stitched them in along the seam and called it good. With the Pinkalicious and Little Boy Blue baby quilts, the piecing and quilting offered an opportunity to place them so that they wouldn't be stitched over. It was kind of frustrating, though, because the ultra-cuddle I used on the back of the quilts was stretchy and shifted. So when I set out to position the label for this quilt so that the colored stitching wouldn't intrude too much on the white label, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I was surprised at how well it lined up. Horizontally, it is right on. Vertically, the label should sit ¾” of an inch lower, except that when I cut the top piece of backing, I forgot to add the extra allowance and instead cut it exactly where I wanted the label to be. Measure twice, cut once never rang truer.

Favourite Things Friday: The Frontrunner {a week and a day late}
Last Friday, the Not-So-Little Bugs had the day off from school. I took the day off work and we set off on an adventure. With high spirits, ample snacks and entertainment, we set off to visit my mom and dad via Utah's light rail, the Frontrunner. We arrived at the platform early, bought our tickets and patiently waited for our train to arrive. Upon boarding, we picked seats with a table so that we could play the game Grasshopper brought.

Grasshopper refused to smile, and if we look a bit rough, well, that's because we were. Part of our adventure was to get hair cuts, all three of us {and I got a color}, from my sister. The ride took 1 hour and 57 minutes, traversing 81 miles. This is 37 minutes longer than it takes to drive, but I was all for taking the train since that meant that I didn't have to drive. Before we were barely underway, though, I got a mite queasy. The motion sickness triggered a massive migraine, which I tried my best to medicate and ignore. After our hair appointments, we had a little party at my parents' house. My dad cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and the weather was so lovely {mid-60's; see also, Identity Crisis} that we ate outside. All of my siblings and their kids were there, except for one sister and her family who live in Idaho and who did not have the day off school. It was so nice to be all together. We played games after dinner, and the Not-So-Little Bugs and I caught the last train home. It was definitely a favourite, in my book.

Random Bits: Vol. 5

Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break. –Jane Wells

Baby, It's Cold Outside
Saturday morning, we woke up to 10" of snow. I know how much it was because I measured.

Friday morning started out with rain. I love rain. But then the rain turned to fat, wet flakes of slush. I don't like slush so much. After the sun went down and temperatures dropped, the rain and slush on the ground began to freeze and the stuff falling down became more snow-like and began to stick. I'm sure the skiers were ecstatic. Me? Not so much. Although I do ski. Or I did. It's been a while. But I digress.

Because of the storm, the power went out just after 11:00 pm and since there was nothing else to do, I went to bed. I laid there half-way between waking and sleep until the power came back on around 4:30 am. I'd left a light on, which ended any hope of sleep. It was an inconvenience. And then I thought about the poor people who had to be out in the weather to fix the problem and I was glad the power was back on, because baby, it's cold outside.

The weather kind of foiled my plans for the weekend. There were all kinds of fun family events going on an hour's drive north of here. My sister's oldest boy just turned eight was baptized on Saturday morning. Her new baby {the one who got the Pinkilicious quilt} was blessed on Sunday and in between, on Saturday afternoon, was a wedding shower for my youngest brother's fiance. I wasn't keen on driving when there was bound to be ice on the roads and the prospects for more snow were pretty high. It was a tough call and I hated to miss all the fun, but I opted to stay home.

Shoveling snow is one of my least favorite things. It ranks just underneath trudging through snowy sidewalks/driveways/stairs and slipping on sidewalks/driveways/stairs that have iced over because they weren't shoveled. So, shovel I must.

There are different kinds of snow. Sometimes the snow is dry and powdery. That's not bad to shovel. But this was heavy, wet, sticky snow and with so much of it, it was a long job. Because of the consistency of the snow, though, I could shovel neat, tidy paths in it, which I like. It reminds me of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, when the kids and the Cat make a huge mess in the snow and then the Cat and all of his helpers make short work of it, leaving the snow sparkling clean and white, with sharp, straight edges where they'd cleaned off the walk ways.

After we shoveled snow, the Little Bugs and I went to get new coats because they had both outgrown their old ones. We found a really nice one for Grasshopper that rang up at 75% off when we combined a one-day sale price and and a coupon. If you know me at all, you know how happy clearance rack shopping makes me. This was even better, because coats are not clearance right now. It was a win for everyone because Grasshopper is pretty enamored with it. Later in the day when we went grocery shopping, he wore it the whole time even though it was too warm inside for it. He said it was too cool not to wear. This was just after he told me that we'd really scored with his coat.

We did not find a coat on sale for LadyBug. We almost couldn't find a coat at all for LadyBug. She is categorically opposed to "girly." I'm OK with that. I want her to be who she is. But finding her clothing presents a problem because clothing manufacturers seem to think that every girl on the planet likes pink and sparkly. All the girls' coats had faux fur trim on the hood. So with the help of Mr. Bug, who is infinitely more patient than I am, she finally found one she liked in the boys' department at Wal-Mart. It is green, her current favorite color, has a zip-out liner, is very gender neutral with no faux fur trim on the hood and was full price {but still less than Grasshopper's }. Most importantly, it will keep her warm. Everyone is happy. Another win.

The Spam-Bots Attack
I've turned on the word verification for comments. Don't take it personally. I know Google/Blogger's verification words/pictures are ridiculously difficult to decipher, so I'll turn it back off soon. The Spam-Bots seem to be extra busy lately and I'm hoping to deter them. Perhaps they're staying inside, what with all the snow and cold weather, and have nothing better to do with their time than pester people with bogus comments.

The Best $12.75 I Ever Spent
This is a Green-Vase Zelkova {also known as Japanese Zelkova or Zelkova Serrata}. I took this picture a month ago.

I love this tree. For several reasons. The telling of which requires a back-story. When we bought our house, there were flower beds laid out, but not much in the way of plants and no trees. The few perennials that were here either died because they were planted in the wrong spot or I pulled them out because they were planted in the wrong spot. I started adding plants that I thought were interesting right away. Trees, on the other hand, are a huge commitment, and it took several years after we moved in to pluck up the courage to plant a couple in the front yard, even though I knew what I wanted.

A couple of years after that, I started thinking about trees for the back yard. I wanted something fairly tall and quick growing, making Poplar trees an obvious choice. Because I didn't have much expertise with trees, I called the guy who is in charge of landscaping for the city to see if he had any suggestions or opinions. I asked him what he thought of poplars and he told me that because they grow so fast, they are brittle and branches break off easily. Aside from that, their normal state is "messy" as they are always dropping things. He gave me a few suggestions and at the top of that list was the Green-Vase Zelkova. It is a cousin to the Elm, but is more resistant to bugs and disease. It grows quickly, has a pretty shape and beautiful foliage.

I went to the nursery looking for a Zelkova. Then I went to another one. And another one after that. There were none to be found. As a matter of fact, none of the trees on my list were at any of the nurseries. So I gave up my quest. Several months later, while on another quest for chairs to match the kitchen table I'd just acquired at a spectacularly huge discount, I happened across a Zelkova at the KMart way across town. It was sitting next to the front door with a 75% off tag on it. My mind was focused on getting enough chairs to match my new table that it didn't register until after I'd bought my chairs and was hauling them out to the car that, 1. this was a tree I'd searched high and low for and, 2. it was 75% off. As soon as I got the chairs loaded, I went back and bought the tree. Getting it into the car was an adventure.

I drive an old Isuzu Trooper {you can see the back bumper of it in one of the photos above}. I folded the back seat down, reclined the passenger seat and angled the tree in through the back gate. It crossed up through the body of the vehicle diagonally and out the passenger window. I found some rope and tied the top of the tree to the side mirror, but it extended about 18" beyond that and I worried all the way home that the top of the tree would break off because of the air pushing against it as I drove. So I drove slowly, through back roads to get home.

I think this tree is four years old now. It might be five. It has grown pretty quickly and now provides shade on the back porch. And it lives up to its reputation for being a good tree. This was how I found it Saturday morning.

It looks like a weeping tree. I went out and beat it with a broom to knock the snow off. Not a single branch was broken and without the snow to push the branches down it snapped back into shape and is as good as new.

Yes, I love that tree.

Baby, It's Cold Outside: Reprise
The world is a slightly different place covered in a blanket of snow. It sounds different. It's quieter, I suppose. And when there is sunlight, it is brighter—a nice white covering over practically everything makes for a good reflective surface. Without snow, you couldn't ski. I love that LadyBug loves to play in the snow so much. Snow brings back happy childhood memories. Snow makes hot cocoa taste better. And snow is kind of pretty.

Deep down, I think I maybe like snow a little more than I let on, but don't you dare tell anyone.

I Must Ask . . . What Do You Do In the Summertime?

Oh, what do you do in the summertime,

When all the world is green?

Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream

On the banks as the clouds go by?

Is that what you do? So do I!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime,

When all the world is green?

Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool,

Or swing in a tree up high?

Is that what you do? So do I!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime,

When all the world is green?

Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades,

Or count all the stars in the sky?

Is that what you do? So do I!

–Dorothy S. Andersen,
Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

It's been three weeks since I asked you all about grocery shopping. My how time flies. It must be summer . Grocery shopping, in my opinion is a necessary evil. The noise, especially crying children, is very distracting for me while I'm trying to figure out how to get the most for my money. It is important to me to make sure that I'm spending wisely. I'm not brand-loyal; my loyalty lies in the best price and if that means buying the “generic” I'm happy with that. But it takes concentration to make sure you're really getting the best deal.

Sidebar: A friend of mine priced out groceries in 2005 {or maybe it was 2008; I can't remember for sure}. She went back to the same grocery store and priced everything again this week. She told me that prices have doubled and tripled. I almost choked. I'm certain that our income has not matched that.

In any case, making the best of it seems to be the thing to do in the case of grocery shopping vs. the budget. From the comments, I get the impression that planning a menu makes grocery shopping easier. Or maybe that's just me. I've been a menu planner for most of my married life. When Mr. Bug and I were first married and poorer than church mice, I remember one time that I had $33 to buy groceries for the week. It took creativity and some serious planning, but I came away having spent $32-and-change and from what I remember, we ate pretty well that week. A few years back, I kind of quit planning menus and would only go grocery shopping when we ran out of cold cereal and milk. Looking back, I can see how stressful that was for me. I much prefer having a plan for meals and the groceries to go with it, even if it means going grocery shopping every week. As far as the voting, it looks like shopping weekly is the most popular choice.

In other news, the Olympic trials have been going on recently, which got me thinking of the Summer Games. I was going to ask what your favorite sport is to watch, but that gets complicated trying to keep the list to a manageable size without leaving anything out. Of course, I always to leave something out, so that's not new. Then I got to thinking that only the most elite participate in the Games and the 99.99% of the rest of regular folks probably do things we think are just as much fun as competing in the Olympics and we don't have to wait four years to do them.

Summer is officially here {unless you live in the southern hemisphere, in which case I'm glad it's you and not me sorry if you're cold}. One of my favorite things about summer is the longer hours of daylight. I love it when it is light outside until 9:30pm! I love staying up a little bit later in the summer and sleeping in. But I also love the cool, calm of an early summer's morning. Summer has so much potential.

Growing up something I loved to do in the summer was to watch The Price Is Right. It was so cool to imagine winning all those fabulous prizes. That's just a silly memory and not really something I look forward to doing every year. I haven't watched since Bob Barker had dark hair >. One of my favorite things about summer now is gardening. I love the smell of the earth, the sweat and hard work of it, and the meditative quality it has for me. I mostly do flowers. There's something about knowing where my produce came from that grosses me out a little. Don't get me wrong. I love it when my neighbors share zucchini and tomatoes picked ripe from their gardens. I'm just not a big fan of seeing my food sitting in a heap of composted soil where any number of creepy crawlies, not limited to but including worms, spiders, ants, snails and slugs, could potentially have been partying, if you know what I mean.

Sidebar: This morning, I was out doing battle with the rose bushes {I won, by they way} when I heard hooves against the pavement up the road. I looked and could see four horses coming at quite a pace. It is not uncommon for people to ride horses through town. But it is common for them to go that quickly. Then I realized that they horses were without riders! There's a paddock up the road a ways and they must have gotten loose. There were four of them and they turned the corner before they reached my house and headed on down the road. After a while, I heard hooves again, and there were those same four horses coming back the from way they'd gone. They headed back up the road and I hope they made it back to their pasture. I had to wonder what they were up to. See what I mean about summer having potential?

Our family doesn't do a traditional summer vacation, with a trip to somewhere exotic. We try to make the most of it with fun activities throughout the summer. My mom hosts Grandma Week every year, though for her 10 grandkids and either or both of their parents. It is a fun little stay-cation and we always have a good time. There's also a fun family reunion with Mr. Bug's family; his parents, seven siblings, their spouses and a collective 30 children. Planning rotates through the eight siblings {only five years until we have to plan it again}, so we do something different each year, and we always have fun. The Little Bugs love to go swimming, so we try to fit that in as much as possible. And sometimes we do a foreign exchange. That is to say, we have cousins come to stay with us or the Little Bugs get to go and stay with their cousins. The Little Bugs are on foreign exchange at my sister's house this week and from what I gather they are having a really fun time. {Sidebar: Is it horrible to say that I'm kind of enjoying myself too? I worked an 8-hour day yesterday without any guilt. I was nice not to have to mediate arguments by phone or worry about what the Little Bugs are up to, about not being there for them or about getting home in time to feed them before they starved to death.}

Ah, summer. So many fun things to pack into such a short time. Today, I must ask . . . what do you do in the summertime? What's your favorite activity? Or non-activity? I've listed a few things that came to mind, so vote in the poll and if you don't see your favorite, leave me a comment!

Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 29

How incredible it is that in this fragile existence we should hate and destroy one another. There are possibilities enough for all who will abandon mastery over others to pursue mastery over nature. There is world enough for all to seek their happiness in their own way. –Lyndon B. Johnson

Batiks, Baby!
One of my goals for this year is to start collecting a nice stash of batiks, and I think I'm well on my way now. I ordered these from Connecting Threads. They have a great selection that is very reasonably priced. I wanted batiks that look like they've been watercolored, but they have some amazing prints too and the best part is they sell fat quarters at linear yardage prices. They had a sale on a few of their batikss when I ordered my FQ's, so I practically stole a couple of these pieces.

The Last of the Peonies
Peonies definitely have the "less is more" thing down. At the very most, they started blooming in my yard 3 weeks ago, and they're all pretty much done. I missed showing you a few the later blooming ones and I very nearly missed showing you Bartzella. There was only one bedraggled bloom left when I finally made it out to take pictures. I tried to knock an ant off, and also got the petal it was sitting on. Bart is supposed to be yellow. He looks very pink in this photo, but he bloomed more coral and less pink than it looks here, with a hint of yellow in there. I suspect the color has to do with the acidity content {or lack thereof} in the soil. In any case, Bartzella made a beautiful showing this year and I'm looking forward to tinkering around to see if I can get the flower color to the yellow it is supposed to be.

Monday Music Spot: Rockebel's Cannon

Avilable for purchase from The Piano Guys or in iTunes.

Story behind the song:
Ask any cellist. They'll tell you about what's it's like to play the cello part of Pachebel's Canon in D. It's the same 8 notes over and over and over again. The good news is, it's easy to memorize. The bad news is you don't know when to stop. There's a rumor floating around that says Pachelbel either died while writing it, never finishing the cello part, or that he dated a cellist and it did NOT go well . This arrangement is dedicated to all the cellists that have fallen asleep while playing this song...or at least wanted to fall asleep. Steven Sharp Nelson actually began writing this arrangment while bored at a wedding >.

Ahem ... all the bitter cello-malice aside, Pachelbel's Canon in D (written in the 1600's) has stood the test of time — celebrated as the most recognizable piece of classical music. We like to call it the "one-hit wonder of the 1600's" . It really is an amazingly-catchy piece of music. It demonstrates the musical form of the "canon," when a melody is played and then repeated in a round by other voices (watch how the melodies are passed from one cello to the next — right to left).

ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY THE CELLO — bowing, plucking, strumming, and beating the cello any way possible.

This arrangement was actually written before ThePianoGuys posted our first video, "Michael Meets Mozart" — but we hesitated filming it because of how involved the idea was. We've never used "extras" before! And the thought of staging a wedding, directing extras, and cloning Steve 4 times all in one video-shoot made us justifiably anxious. So we put it off. And put it off. And then put if off some more. One day Al van der Beek was skimming through our thousands of messages on Facebook and happened to see one with the title "wedding" in the subject line. A woman had emailed us about an opportunity to film at a big magazine-spread wedding photo shoot. It was perfect — they would have the location, flowers, actors, and even a cake. Everything we'd need. To make a long story short, we excitedly scheduled our video shoot for the same day as their photo shoot, but a few days prior to the day it fell apart. After much discussion we determined to move forward on faith that we could still work it out. Paul Anderson marshaled all sorts of connections and called on whomever he could and by nothing short of a miracle in a matter of days the wedding was all planned — complete with a beautiful location, stunning decor, sharp tuxedos, fancy flowers, a photogenic bride and groom, 60 energetic guests, and an iced cake!

The piece at the beginning that is just ending is Steven Sharp Nelson's 4-cello arrangement of "Thanks Be To Thee" (att. to Handel). Available for purchase (track 7 on the album "Tender Mercies") from The Piano Guys. Sheet music also available for purchase.

Thanks to our many "cameos" we're reluctantly-proud to admit that this is the first video where you can SEE ALL FIVE PIANO GUYS! Everyone appeared as themselves, except for Jon who got a little carried away with his characters .

A HUGE thank you goes out to our vendors that made this wedding look so amazing. Please visit their sites and use them if you're planning a wedding!

Bell Tower
Forever More Events
Bloomers

Another huge thank you goes out to all our extras — family and friends that sacrificed an afternoon to make our little wedding look the part! You were all fantastic!

And another thank you goes to Robin Saville of Bride Access who helped Steven Sharp Nelson conceptualize this video.

Credits
Canon in D written by Johann Pachelbel (1600's)
Arrangement written and produced by Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studios
Video produced by Paul Anderson & Tel Stewart
Starring
Steven Sharp Nelson, cellists
Paul Anderson, himself
Al van der Beek, himself
Tel Stewart, himself
Jon Schmidt, minister and hip old lady
Shalley Sorenson, bride
Zach Sorenson, groom
Nicole Alfano, Wedding Coordinator

Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 28

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed. –Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace-Prize Speech

Eclipse

Yesterday there was a partial eclipse of the sun here. What a cool event to witness! Mr. Bug rigged us up a shadow viewer and we watched as it progressed. I fiddled with my camera settings, hoping to increase the pixel area/photo size. Instead I decreased it and ended up with teeny tiny photos with even teenier tinier images of the shadow of the eclipse. My little photo is almost not worth sharing, except the next time an eclipse will be visible in Utah is in 60 years.

The eclipse, which was annular {meaning the moon appears too small to cover the sun completely and leaves a ring of light around the moon} was fully visible in California. This is a photo of the actual eclipse.

{Photo: AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama}

Dog Ear Confetti
These little bits of fabric and paper are the dog ears of 936 half-square triangles. Each square has two triangles and each triangle has two dog ears, that makes a total of 3,744 dog ears {give or take} in this little pile.

I'm doing a half-square triangle swap. I figured out how many 2" HST's I'd need to make a nice lap-sized quilt and then pulled fabrics from my stash. Our swap group used triangle papers that let you sew 12 HST's all at once. It is almost like paper piecing, but not quite. You put your two fabrics right sides together, put the paper on top and use it as a template for sewing and trimming. When you finish, the half-square triangle still needs to be pressed open and you have paper to remove from one side. I did 78 sheets and used a different print fabric for each one. It took me a week, but I am done! I kept four of each of my color combinations {312 HST's} and sent the rest {624 HST's} to be swapped out for HST's made by other members of the swap. Let the record show that I was finished and had my swaps in the mail a full 10 days before the deadline.

I won't be so on top of things with the Sesame Street quilt. Cookie Monster has been giving me the old stink eye for about a week-and-a-half now. I'm going to be right on top of the deadline for the first of three quilt shows, if I don't miss it completely. Besides Cookie Monster's other eye and the rest of his face, I have six other blocks to finish, and then there's assembly, quilting and binding all to get done by June 8^th. It is such a fun quilt to work on and I'm still really excited about it, so I hope that enthusiasm will help me get it finished in time.

Peony of the Day
I have 17 peony plants in my gardens. 13 of them are blooming this year and I intend to show you them all. I still had my camera set to stupid a smaller pixel/photo size, so pretty much what you see here is what you get.

This is Bowl of Beauty. It is kind of the teacher's pet, because I bought this as a dry root start {I know there is a name for it, but I've been trying to remember for days and can't} and usually it takes three years for those kinds of starts to actually produce flowers. This one bloomed right out of the bag {literally} the first year I planted it. I love that kind of self-motivation.

This is Félix Crousse. He's not quite completely open, but look at that beautiful color! Félix & Beauty are right next to each other and they look so pretty together.

And to wrap up, this is my second Karl Rosenfield plant. The first one bloomed last week and now this one has buds starting to open. I has been really fun to see the peonies bloom this year.

Favourite Things Friday: Peonies

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. –Gertrude S. Wister

Spring flowers are my favorite. It is probably because they have the less is more thing down pat. They bloom for two weeks and then you have to wait another 50 weeks to see them again. After a long, dreary winter, those first beautiful colors of spring are miracles to me. I have a serious thing for tulips and peonies.

I have 17 peony plants, of which only three are repeats. All but four have buds on them this year {and those four are going to be relocated to see if they'll buck up and grow already} and I am so excited, because three of those 13 with buds on them are new bloomers this year. A couple of the plants in sunnier spots have started to bloom already and that's my favorite thing today.

{As a side note, my dad told me the other day that his grandma was a member of the Ogden Garden Club. Her specialty was roses and she would go out and use rolls and rolls of film taking pictures of her gardens. It must be hereditary.}

This peony is called Karl Rosenfield. I have two Karl Rosenfield plants. This one is on the south side of the house, so it is a little ahead of the other plant, which will be blooming any day now. Their color is so eye-catching.

This is Top Brass. There are six different bloom types for peonies. This one is called a double bomb and it is a good 7" across. I love the yellow in the center of this pretty white peony.

This peony was named after the man who discovered penicillin, Dr. Alexander Fleming. This is one of my oldest peonies as well as one of my favorites because of its beautiful pink color.

I'm sure you're wondering what is so interesting about this peony that hasn't even bloomed yet. I was going to wait to post about it until it did actually bloom, but I'm so excited about this bud that I'm giving you a sneak preview of something amazing to come.

This is a hybrid of a tree peony and an herbaceous peony {all of the other peonies I have are of the herbaceous variety and they are the most common}. What that means is that this looks like a regular garden variety peony, blooms like one and you take care of it the same way you would a regular peony. What it gets from the tree peony side of its family tree is stems strong enough to support the giant blooms that appear in mid-spring, which is a definitely plus for a peony. All of my other peonies have support rings around them, but they still bow over with the weight of the giant flowers they produce. Ironic, isn't it?

This hybrid is called Bartzella and its blooms are a beautiful lemon yellow. They are so beautiful that there was quite a to-do when it was first introduced 10ish years ago. Cuttings were selling for $200 a pop. I bought my start five years ago for the much more reasonable sum of $49 {plus shipping}. I've never paid that much for a plant {that wasn't a tree} and never will again because $49 {plus shipping} for a hybrid shrub it is just too sad for words. Generally speaking, if a perennial plant doesn't bloom by its third year, it probably sterile and won't bloom. You can move it and see if it likes a different spot better, but most of the time that doesn't help. I'd pretty much given up on old Bart here because he was supposed to bloom two years ago. But I suppose that good things come to those to wait. I counted nine buds on Bartzella this afternoon! I can't wait to see if the yellow bloom color lives up to all the hype.

Today's post brought to you by:

There Is Beauty All Around

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. –Abram L. Urban

I love my gardens. They are such a lovely place to be. All my flower beds are filled with perennials, which are the workhorse of the garden. Most years, in the spring-time, I fill my beds in with annuals, which keep the gardens alive with color all season long. Most perennials have a limited bloom time and most of the perennials I have are spring bloomers, so when summer comes around those annuals keep things interesting. This year and last, it just hasn't been in the budget. While I really miss the extra color, I don't miss all the extra dead-heading. Still, I'm thinking about dropping in at a favorite nursery or two to see if they've got any annuals left on clearance.

Most of my gardens are just foliage right now. And while the green-ness of it all is very pretty, there is one bright spot of color in the garden by the front walk {also known as the birdbath garden because of the birdbath sitting in the middle of it} which brightens my day each time I go by. I wanted to share that with you today.

{Valerian, Yarrow, Black-Eyed Susans & Shasta Daisies}

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 11

Continuous effort is the key to unlocking our potential.
–Winston Churchill

Monday = Rain = Music Spot
Okay, so it wasn't as rainy as the other rainy Mondays. It was just a 10-minute shower and the sun came right out after. This is was more in line with what we expect as far as rain goes in Utah. But it is Monday and it did rain today. So I thought I'd mention it and post a song that is vaguely related.


Snowball Night: Week 54½

The ditch work is done; let the fun begin!

The water soluble thread I ordered is on back-order. I was going to use that for stitching in the ditch because I really like the stability that it provides. But with a little encouragement from Lane {and because I didn't want to wait any longer}, I decided to get to it with the quilting thread. I even did the 192 starts and stops on the diagonals on the snowballs. It took forever. But if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Right? Here's a peek at one of the blocks from the front.

Peony L♥ve

{First-time bloomer: Barrington Belle}

{Long-time favorite: Félix Crousse}

{First-time bloomer: Gay Paree}

500^th Post
This is my 500^th post. That's a lot of writing. A really lot. I'd planned to have a little something in the way of a giveaway to commemorate, but I only got to the planning stages. 500 is kind of a huge milestone, so maybe we'll commemorate after Grandma Week {which starts tomorrow} is over. Thanks for hanging in there with me, for reading and commenting and being a witness to my life.

I Must Ask . . . What Is Your Favorite Season?

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. –Henry David Thoreau

Where I live, we enjoy the four seasons, each in its extreme. Winter brings cold and snow; spring, a renewal of life; summer, the need for air conditioning to keep from melting to the sidewalks; and fall, the turning of the leaves and the earth quietly going to sleep for another winter. Of those four seasons, winter is my least favorite and I could skip it every year. Some people who live around here do. They're called 'snow birds' and they have winter homes in the southern part of the state, where it stays pretty mild. I love the fun that summer brings and autumn is definitely beautiful as all the leaves change color as they burn out their last bit of life.

For me, spring is my favorite season. I love spring. The weather is mild, the days get longer and the earth is comes to life. Long-forgotten plants push up through the ground and bloom anew. Spring is really a miracle.

And not to miss an opportunity to show off my peonies, here's what is blooming today. This is called Bowl of Beauty, and it really lives up to its name. Not only is it nice to look at, it smells beautiful as well.

There are three different peony plants here. In the bottom right corner is Karl Rosenfield. The pretty pink blooms in the center are Alexander Fleming {named after the man who invented penicillin} and the dark pink bud in the back that is just starting to open is one that I picked up from a neighbor. She didn't know the name of it and I haven't been able to tell for sure what kind it is {there are about a zillion different peonies, and unless you write down what they are when you get them, you'll never remember which is which}. Behind them are some pretty peachy irises.

Now that I've shown you why spring is my favorite, I must ask . . what is your favorite season?

Last week, we did eye color. Hazel and blue tied for the lead. I have to say, I really like having blue eyes. Thanks to everyone who voted!