Happy Spring!

Today is the vernal equinox! Yippppeeeeeeeeee!

It was a glorious first day of spring here in MA...70 degrees, sunny, no wind and just perfect in every way! I had a fantastic day; I spent about 90% of the day outside! I took the dogs on a nice long walk to this nice waterfront area called Collins Cove. Here are a couple views:


One of our dogs, Koty, absolutely adores the water. If he can't get into the ocean, then even a puddle will do! The best thing in the world, according to Koty, is being in the water and having us throw rocks in so he can eat the splash. Seriously. This is better than a car ride, better than any walk. He LOVES to eat the splashes. We have no idea how this all started, but he is obSESSed with this whole routine now. He's a kook! What can I say?

Many years ago, my husband was throwing rocks for Koty, and unfortnately threw one rock too close...Koty tried to catch it and ended up breaking one of his big, lower canine teeth. Oh, my. Poor Koty had to have it pulled...There was no saving it. Poor little guy! He recovered very quickly after the surgery to remove the tooth, but now has this funny lop-sided mouth! His tongue lolls out the side when he's hot because his toofie is gone! My poor husband still has not forgiven himself for throwing that rock.

After taking the dogs for a nearly hour-long walk, I then did a power walk! I went quite a few miles and ended up in this lovely park right on the ocean called Salem Willows: This is a really nice spot, called "The Willows" by locals, and features many, many huge, old weeping willow trees.

There is a strip of tacky restaurants and arcades down there. It's really fun if you're in the mood to play silly games like skee-ball or pinball or air hockey! They are the places where you win tickets and then redeem them for prizes like toys or shot glasses or candy. Well, a few summers ago, my husband and I decided it'd be our mission to play enough of these games to rack up literally 10,000 tickets so we could redeem them for this silly ceramic bowl with a lobster painted on the inside! We figure with all the money spent on those arcade games, that bowl probably cost us $100!!! It was mighty fun racking up the tickets, though!

Happy Spring to you!

Bizz bizz

I just saw a bumble bee. It's March 19th and I am in Massachusetts.

That is VEEERRRRY early for a bumble bee, my friends. And, by my friends, I mean my Mom, who faithfully reads this blog and like probably 2 other people who randomly find this because they've googled "baby shower flowers" or because they click on my name over there at Bye, Bye Pie.

I'm so disappointed that no one ever feels like commenting or anything. June, over there at Bye, Bye Pie has THE funniest commenters. I just love them!

Anyway, back to bumble bees...

Did you know there are several subspecies of bumble bees? I am a big science dork, given my background, and did an independent study for my entomology professor in college. He had me find as many subspecies of bumble bees that I could and then I was to prepare them properly them for the collection at Northwestern Michigan College where I started my college career. I found like 15 subspecies without a whole lot of effort! There are around 250 subspecies of bumble bees and they all look slightly different from the next!



In other news, it was yet another gorgeous day here. A bit chillier since the sea breeze kicked in today, bringing much cooler air in, but if you could get away from the wind, it was divine! Everyone and their brother was out and about today. I did another power walk this afternoon and encountered herds of humans walking everywhere!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, here is the link to our forecast. Looks like we're back to reality after tomorrow...

Have a good weekend!

Violas, part deux

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the weather has been mighty fine and I took the first leap in my flower-planting already! This is, BY FAR, the earliest I have ever planted anything outside. I put violas in several planters knowing that I could bring them inside if we get another freeze. Here are the ones I did in the back yard:



Here's our cute little seating area in the back. It's really nice to sit out there and eat when the days get warmer.

I'm off to fix some dinner now. I'm pooped. I did some housework, walked the dogs, did a power walk, worked on our boat (another story for another day) and then tackled the not-so-fun job of cleaning out the flower boxes. Am hoping to plant those next week if the weather stays nice!

Have a good evening!

Wonderful Wednesday

OK. Seriously? This weather is to DIE for! It got up to 66 degrees here today, the birds are going crazy with their chirping, the sky was a luscious blue and there was not a breath of wind, so it felt even warmer! MAN, do I love springtime. My husband, however, thinks we'll have one more snowstorm before it gets really nice out. I hope hope hope he's wrong because we've been gypped out of spring for like 4 years in a row now. GYPPED, I tell ya! It was gross and rainy and cold all the way through June last year. The most dismal spring EVER. Then, suddenly it was 95 degrees with 99% humidity and you just couldn't even breathe with all that hotness. Let's have some proper seasons this year, shall we Mother Nature? Pretty please? (Like Mother Nature has time to read blogs!)

Annnnnnnnyway, I planted violas in several planters today. I have 5 in the back yard and 4 by our back door now filled with their adorable little happy faces. Here are a few:


Ordinarily, I would not have dirt exposed like you see in the two shots there of the large terra cotta pot, but those also have the lily-of-the-valley bulbs or pips or whatevers in there. You might notice, too, if you click on that middle picture to enlarge it, that there is curly willow in there that is sprouting leaves! I hope the leaves really come out over time! I think that would look really great!

I also plunked some of those curly willow branches in the little flower beds I made next to our back door. I have some perennial grasses in there that look really funny right now after I cut off the leaves from last year. They have little flat-top hairdos now!
I'll take some photos of the pots I did in the back yard soon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, the weather outside is delightful!

What a difference a day makes, someone said to me today. And, truer words have never been spoken, really. Yesterday was the pits. Cold, driving rain, grayness and yuck. Today, we have the birds singing, flowers blooming, sunshine and loveliness! A real mood booster, for sure!

I ran approximately seven million, eight hundred & sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and twenty-one errands today. Approximately. There may have been one or two more. First? The new specialty pet store that opened in Salem called Luna's Pet Depot. This is most exciting because they carry everything we feed our doggies, a vet-recommended 95% protein diet. Amazing food - our dogs lost weight and are spritelier than ever on this stuff.

After this, I had to get drugs for the dogs, as they are older and have arthritis. Then to the grocery store, then the seafood shop, then home to drop off food and pick up the dogs for a ride! We then went to the coffee place for espresso beans, then here and there and, phew! Finally home!

One of the most important things I did, of course, was make my first official trip to Marblehead Garden Center! It's my favorite place to get things, as they give me a great discount for my business, and I also know everyone that works there! There, at the the garden center they had my most favorite spring flower of them all - violas. LOVE violas. So, I got a flat of them. Will plant them in planters tomorrow, as the weather is supposed to be wonderful this entire week!
Aren't they lovely?

Here are some other pretties from my yard:



Here are the first shoots of the bleeding heart plant I have out front.
They are so pretty when they bloom:

State of Emergency

It has been raining. For three full days. I'm sort of done with rain for a while, okay? I'm just listening to the weather guy on the TV talk about the fact we've gotten 10 inches of rain in the last couple of days. There are major floods everywhere and the Governor had to declare a State of Emergency in Massachusetts. From rain!

I think the Lily-of-the-Valley that I planted in a planter by our back door will be okay. I put them in the other day to cheer myself up after learning of the passing of my lovely Grandmother. She has had Alzheimer's so she really hasn't been all there for a while, but this was sort of unexpected news since she was in a nice place, getting very good care, and has been in relatively good health of late.

Now, most people upon learning of a death do not immediately feel the need to garden. Gardening is not only the thing I do for work, it is also my go-to activity when I need some zen. I can get totally lost in gardening...Even cleaning things up feels good. I ripped out all the old, sad annuals from last fall, cut back some perennial grasses, and cleaned out the evergreens I had used to decorate the planter by our back door.

Once the planter was empty, it was only a matter of time before I saw that bag of soil that I had by the side of the house...And then, of course, I remembered the two bags of Lily-of-the-Valleys that I bought at Home Depot last week! I planted them - a mixture of pink and white varieties - and then stuck birch branches back in the planter for interest while we wait for them to sprout! I just looked out there and see that I already have some small little guys poking through the dirt! Apparently they don't mind this rotten weather!

I also just looked on the internet for photos and apparently the thing that you buy when you buy Lily-of-the-Valley? It's called a pip!
What it looks like when it comes out of the bag is a big root ball that is oddly shaped. In any case, I planted the pips and can't wait until I get flowers!

Please send some sun our way!

Sleepy Sunday

Last night, of course, was the time change back to Daylight Savings. This is the time change I love. I saw a thing in the newspaper a couple of days ago about the poor souls who are early risers and how they will now have to wake up in the dark. I say to them, why not sleep another hour?

I do not understand the early-rising thing. Never have. I've seen me a few sunrises. And I always feel like "Meh. Let's go back to bed now." Sunsets are just as pretty, really. Right?

I have a couple of friends who are really into the getting up early, but then by about 8:30pm, they're all yawny and thinking about going to bed already! That's prime time, baby! I'm just getting my groove on at 8:30pm!

I've always been a night owl. Even as a kid I never, ever, EVER wanted to go to bed before midnight. I would be SO excited on Friday nights when I could stay up and watch Johnny Carson with my mom. MAN, did I love that show. And also The Midnight Special. Not only was it on late, but it was music! Growing up, there was nothing better than The Bee Gees or their little brother Andy Gibb. Man, the hours and hours I would spend just spinning those records so that I could memorize every single word and melody!

One of the very best presents EVER on Christmas morning was when my parents bought a VCR for our television, which, at the time was VERY high-tech! And then they presented me with the finest gift in the entire world...A VHS of a Bee Gees concert.

OH. MY. GOD!

I was seriously delirious with happiness at the idea that I would be able to watch that ideally every minute of every day!

Which brings me back to today. It's raining. Hard. And I'm sleepy. And it's Sunday. I got nothing to tell you except that we had friends over last night, one of whom brought over lovely blueberry tarts for dessert. Well, she had one or seven too-many glasses of wine and she spilled blueberries and blueberry sauce all over the floor of our kitchen and now I have purple spots on our pretty wood floor. Oy.

Guess I should go back to bed.