What's growing May 1st

We ARE in Kansas, Toto, and things are not as they should be. It is unseasonally cool here, and we are about 2-3 weeks behind on bloom time due to the weather. On Sunday, May 1st, I walked the yard looking for what's blooming or about to.

The snowball bush is doing well.

The coral bells are just about to open, the hummingbirds really like these.

The Columbine is still in bud stage.

Variagated Solomon's Seal is just opening up.

Purple creeping phlox and Candytuft

White Yarrow

Peonies are budding.

While I was messing around taking pictures, a little head kept poking out of the wren house looking at me. I was not able to get his/ her picture, but the evidence of a nest is sticking out the sides.

Look at these weird, spidery looking things!

As they unfurl, they look like this.

To become this:

Autumn Fern

I am joining the party at

Summer To-Do List

Shoot me now!

School is almost out....... I love teaching....... Wouldn't ever want any other career, but this time of year is treacherous! I used to teach middle school, and thought high school would be different at the end of the year......not. So this time of year I concentrate (ha, no I don't, I can't make one coherent thought) on my summer list of things to do. Some of it gets done, some not. Now before you start hating, cause teachers have the summer off, would you really want us teaching your kids year around? That would be cruel and unusual punishment for both of us. We aren't talking a co-worker here that drives you nuts, we are talking 130 students, 15-16 year-olds.  I talk big, but I cry on the last day every year. And the more trouble they were, the more they come and hang around to see me the next year!

Anyway! I  always starts out with such enthusiasm. By about hot August, I am shrugging one shoulder and saying "Eh". Here's the list:

1. Stain and/or paint these drawer fronts (a blog entry)

2. Have raised flower bed frame redone. $$

3. Take out carpet in den, put in wood floor $$

4. Paint den (maybe 3/4 blog entry)

5. Drive to Denver a couple of times to see daughter #2

6. Redo this garage sale bench, refinish and re-cover.(blog entry)

7. Paint the inside of the hutch maybe.

8. Major rehaul of a closet, so I have room for more dishes

(this pic could actually go with 8, 9,or 10)

9. Clean out the junk room in the basement

10. Clean garage.

I can about tell already what I just won't have time for   what I won't do.

Numbers 6, 9, and maybe 4.

Come on summer!

I am joining

        at Between Naps on the Porch



Little Horses

"All horses deserve, at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl." author unknown.





Less than a mile from where I live in the suburbs, is a miniature horse farm. It has been there since before we moved to our present house, 27 years ago. When the girls were little, we would often stop the car and feed them apples or carrots. In all those years, I have never taken for granted the opportunity to drive past the pastures of these beautiful creatures. There are two ways into town, and I always take the road past the farm. Yesterday, I went by in early morning and stopped to get these pics.

 
This is the pasture that the newest born are kept in. These little guys came up to the fence to see what I was doing. They are so young, they are  still fuzzy!
 
 

Then later in the evening the same day, my daughter and I drove by, and horses were up close to the fence. She was just as anxious to get out of the car to see them as she was when she was 3!

 

 

 

Another little one, and this one has blue eyes!

Beautiful little thing. Look at those dainty legs and hooves.

 

You can tell how small they are compared to my 5'4" daughter. Not Shetlands....miniature horses.

 

As we were leaving, one little one still had not gotten enough scratches and rubs, but he found a way to scratch that itch.

I am joining Sunday Favorites. Please go see many lovely reposts at Char's.

The Farmhouse Table

Yes! I have one, a real one! It was my grandmother and grandfather's first kitchen table.

When they were married in 1914, they lived in the "little house" on the farm with this as their kitchen table. Mom remembers her baby sister in a laundry basket on top of that table, and she and her sister (2 and 4 years) pulling the baby and basket onto the floor! 

Here's the culprits below. The toddler is my mother and the girl on the left is my Aunt Lizzie. It was these two who tipped the baby basket. (In this picture, circa 1923, the tossed sister was not born yet.)

 Later when they moved into the "big house", there were  5 children and needed a much bigger table. It was relegated to the cellar as a laundry table. Mom also remembers it with an oil cloth draped over it and meat being cut up at butcher time.

 I remember this table years later when I was a child. My grandmother had become a widow,  and moved off the farm into a new little house built just for her. She had it in her basement there, too, and used it as a laundry table.

 When we bought our house nearly 30 years ago, I took it for the screened porch. It is just a "stuff' table now. It has so many coats of chippy paint, and whitewash on it. I drag it outside each spring, and give it a good hosing down.

I like running my hand over its smooth surface, as many of my relatives must have done. It feels good.

I am joining
Funky Junk Interiors
for the
Farm Table party!

Lilac Breakfast

I am so excited that the lilacs are finally blooming! Last fall at the Goodwill  I picked up some lilac patterned dishes, and I have waited for real lilacs to do this post.

This makes a nice breakfast set, with small plates, bowls and mugs.

 The juice glasses are  a thrift store find, as is the coffee pot.

My 89 year old mama made the napkins, and hand hemmed them, because she thought it LOOKED better! Can you beat that? She is so helpful. (Thank you, Mama)

The little chick egg cups I picked up at an antique store.

I set it all up on my back porch coffee table.

I had lots of help.

  
Mr. Lucky was heard to say," I'll  move this plate over here just a little."

I am joining Tablescape Thursday today.