In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.
So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.
But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.
Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!
Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.