The tale of Benjamin Bunny...

Over the past month, my flower gardens, which were well on their way to becoming an array of beautiful blooms, have turned into barely more than a pile of dirt, stems, and scattered pieces of green foliage. 

Why?

This little feller.

Oh yes, there is no denying his cuteness.

Or I'm sure his extreme softness.

And I might even "ooh" and "ahh" when I see him sitting there
always looking so cute 'n stuff.

But don't let him fool you.

He's a devious little fella.

There is practically nothing left of those beautiful blooms.

The bright yellow pansies are completely gone, and I only have a stray stalk of geranium left, which I am attempting to salvage.  I dug up pansies and put them in that planter in the above pictures, hoping it would discourage Mr. Bunny from partaking.

But as you can see, he just hops his little butt right in there and makes himself at home. 

We've sprinkled pepper on the plants, but that doesn't do a lick of good.  He watches me do it, and then starts munching the minute I go back in the house.

We've chased him with the hose, but he just sits at the edge of the yard until we're done making fools of ourselves. 

I admit, he has this cute little white streak down the front of his nose and I just love watching him....

So yeah, Mr. Benjamin Bunny certainly got the hook-up this summer with some mighty expensive rabbit food!  So here's to you, my little fuzzy friend... hope you enjoyed it.

Dirt Under My Nails

Mike & I went flower shopping, and oh what fun we had!  It had been too long since I had wandered through a greenhouse!  It's so hard picking out just a few of the many pretties on display! 

I have managed to create a bit of floral beauty in our back garden, although it’s far from perfect. I’m convinced the slow progress of the flowers is due partly to not having good soil, and partly from the many endless days of rain we’ve had in the past month. (And maybe because of a random rabbit or two that decided to nibble on some leaves, but I try not to think about that too much.)

What I realized when I started planting, is that so many of the flowers we picked out at the greenhouse were ones that I was use to seeing in my grandma's flower pots growing up.  It's nice looking out my window now and seeing that little reminder of her every day. 

I still hear her in my head as she would shake her finger and yell at the gophers: "You say out of my begonias!"  So proudly displayed on my front porch this year: a flower box of begonias.  I smile every time I pull in the driveway, and secretly hope the gophers don't discover that it's there.

One project I made time to pull together was a tiered planter for my back patio.  I had found the idea here and my idea evolved from there.

I was at Walmart and found teal & red pots in a sturdy plastic for MUCH cheaper than I could have bought the other supplies in the original pattern, so I went that direction instead.  I also ended up with two tiers instead of three, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

I put potting soil in the bottom of the large pot, and a couple soda cans in the center to elevate the base of the second pot.

I crushed a few other cans and placed them around the parameter to help with drainage and then filled the rest with dirt before placing the red (smaller) pot on top.
{No pictures of this step.}

Voila!  The finished product.

Do you have dirt under your nails this spring?

 

~ Football & Pansies ~

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Ann Arbor to visit "The Big House" -- the football stadium at the University of Michigan.

My husband is a huge Michigan fan, so by default, I am now too.  

A fan by marriage.

{Jessica, the Buckeye that you are, I won't feel bad if you stop reading this post now!  And if Luke is around, you'd better close the browser!}

We were allowed to tour the team's locker room that day, and wander around the field.  Such a fun experience! 

At a gift shop we bought a Michigan stepping stone for my flower garden.  Just needed to find some pretty yellow flowers to plant around it.

My mom, not knowing that I was in the market for some yellow-lovelies, surprised me with a basket of beautiful yellow pansies the other day!!!

Last night I got everything planted and arranged.

Hello, Michigan!!!

I love how it turned out! :)

Everything else is blooming around the yard right now too.  Seems like it was a really long winter this year, but I am so thankful to see a steady stream of sun and colorful flowers again!

A couple more weeks and hopefully we'll be past the night time frost threats and I'll be able to get the rest of my flower beds all spruced up and filled with flowers. 

Have you planted anything yet?

Hasten the Springtime

He brought me flowers

To hasten the springtime

He brought me flowers

To chase away the gray

He brought me flowers

Because he knows they cast a smile

He brought me flowers

To give hope amid the rain

He brought me flowers

Knowing how I love them

That man of mine brought me roses...

Oh, he loves me so...

From Under the Leaves

Spring thawed the frozen ground and from within my garden bed grew tufts of green & brown foliage.  I had no recollection of what this odd looking plant might become.  I snapped a picture and sent it off to my mother for a diagnosis. 

Peonies. 

She was so excited!  "Just watch," she said. 

So I watched, and captured the amazing transformation.

Ordinary Life

This past week we’ve been lacing up our shoes and going for long walks in the sunshine. One day we went for our walk and then Mike bought me ice cream. Definitely a great end to a good walk. I also squeezed in a long-overdue Pilates workout this week. And I do mean long overdue...especially when you mix in the ice cream like you see there on the left. :)

We had a lovely weekend, including only a half day of work on Friday (yay!). Saturday we went out for pizza & a movie with my husband’s parents to celebrate his mom’s birthday. They came back to our house afterwards to partake of the cake which I attempted to make for her.

Words of Wisdom: when decorating with strawberries, place them on just before serving or else the juice will pool and leak all over…

Um, yeah.

Moving on.

Sunday was church and then brunch with Mike’s family, which was lovely and yummy. Then a quick trip to see my family, who was still recovering from colds and a stomach virus.
Love ya, but no thanks.

Hubby & I have been making our way though the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies. I use the phrase ‘making our way’ rather loosely, seeing as we are only on the second disk of the first movie (extended editions, of course!). I have a really hard time staying awake for movies so we have to watch it in rather small segments so I don’t doze off and miss stuff. It’s been several years since I’ve seen the movies, and I admit, it’s been fun getting to watch them together. I just love those little hobbits! Definitely my favorite characters.

Worked out in the yard yesterday and get a bunch of bushes trimmed down and brush out to the street for pick-up. Now for confession time: I am not an outdoor-kind-of-girl! I hate bugs, thorns, dirt under my nails, sweating, spiders, etc. But I absolutely love flowers and pretty gardens, so I make sacrifices. And after making those sacrifices, I run as fast into the shower as I possibly can to get all the above-mentioned items off my skin.

Hawaii - the Flowers

I absolutely love flowers – their colors, scents, and individual beauty. Hawaii was definitely no exception to this and around every corner was another piece of floral exquisiteness beckoning for me to gaze upon it.

The resort where we stayed had garden after gorgeous garden, both inside the lobby and outside on the grounds. Some of the flowers I didn’t know the names of, but I found each of them uniquely lovely and filled with the fingerprints of God.

Come, walk through the Maui gardens with me and look upon the flowers of paradise. . .