A BIRTHDAY AND A GARDEN

Just a quick post before I go outside to work in the yard!

Today is my baby girl's birthday.

PING PONG

She's only 2!

I usually talk about Blue and my other dogs don't always get proper mention

but I do love them ALL dearly.

To be honest, Ping has a very special place in my heart even though I haven't had her as long as my senior dogs.

Sometimes that just happens. Someone creeps in under the radar and steals your heart

and she and Poppy have done that.

(SSSSSH, don't tell the others).

Poppy is the second youngest,

only 4 years old but she refuses to play with Ping.

In fact she will close her eyes if Ping runs up to her to play.

I'm not sure if Poppy is trying to just ignore her

or maybe wish her away.

I know this sounds INSANE but I have thought about getting Ping a playmate!

The others will play with her for a couple of minutes but then just walk away

and Ping is still ping-ponging around the room until she stops and sees they have all left.

Anyway, I love this little one.

She is FEARLESS!

(This is a photo of Ping when she somehow jumped up on top of the cabinet

and got into one of the cat beds so that she could look out the window!)

Other news

Yesterday after working the morning at the clinic, me and my sister took a little road trip.

We try to go to Sunnyfield's Garden Center every Spring

and last Christmas I had given my sister a handmade "gift certificate" which said

I would buy her one flower/plant from there.

So I bought her a plant and she bought some more!

and I bought a couple for my garden.

Speaking of my garden...

I woke up to rain this morning

and when it started to let up I went outside and took a couple of photos.

Here's my Gerber Daisy that I kept inside all winter.

My Lilacs are in full bloom and are almost done.

All my Hostas are growing HUGE and I'm not done transplanting them!

And this is one of my birdhouses sitting on one of my wooden boxes that I have "collected".

It's surrounded by my Lilies, a burning bush and a clematis

(It cost me $2.00 and is sitting on a stool that cost me 50 cents.)

I have decided to use all my STUFF that I can in my garden.

I plan on painting everything different colors.

Yep, I'm going to use what I can and donate the rest.....

that's the plan.

OK!

It's not raining any longer!

I MUST get outside.

Have a wonderful SUNDAY!

XOXOXO

MY GARDEN WIP

These are called GOOSENECKS or that is what I was told by the person who gave them to me.

She gave me a couple of plants and said to be careful, they spread. So I planted them opposite my Daisies. Right after the Daisies start to die down and wilt and I cut them back, these guys spring into action.

Even though I've cut back the DAISIES, some still pop back up!

Here's one of the ROSE TREE's that I got as part of my great LUCKY

discounted plant deal. I need to add some more flowers around the base. I went back the other day and they had marked down these HOT PINK feather/flame looking things to 25 cents a 6pk. I'll have to look up the official name and post it along with an updated photo after I plant them. You can see my GLOBE fountain in the background.

Here's a close-up. I got that a couple of years ago. It was another great BARGAIN. They were clearing out and marking down everything at the HyVee Garden Center and it was super cheap. 75% off but still $65.00. My sister was with me and told me to see if I could bargain them down any lower. The Garden Person said that was as low as she could go....unless I was to point out to her where the glaze wasn't perfect on the one side. I laughed and said "Hey, I don't think this glaze is right over here" and she said "Ya know, you are right! How about $50.00?" The photo doesn't do it justice. The water bubbles out the top and then flows softly down the sides. I LOVE it. Well, "love" probably isn't the right word but it makes me happy when I look at it.
(I need to fill in around the base with more flowers too.)

One of my $3.00 bargain hanging baskets -

This is an AWFUL photo. I was so focused on my bird seed feeder that I cut off the big ORANGE DAISY plant. I put the plant on the feeder instead of seed because I heard somewhere that if you fed the birds you have to always feed them. And I already have a lot of mouths to feed! I'm still working on this  area too. I have thin out the LILIES. But notice my PINK HYDRANGEA plant that was also part of the GREAT deal. The little begonia's I had gotten previously for 25 cents a 6pk.

So, that's just a small part of my yard. The front part. I need to take photos of the area between the street and the sidewalk. The side area and my BIRDBATH. I'm working outside constantly and I'm still so far from being done. (I am also spraying my ravine with weed killer so that I can start to tackle that.)
Stay tuned! More to come.