Bloomin' Time

Don't you just love having fresh flowers? I'm obsessed with flowers and love this time of year because everything is blooming in our yard and I can just walk outside to cut roses and hydrangeas for the house. The roses are especially amazing because they actually smell like roses unlike the ones you get from the florist or grocery store. Here are some in our dining room...

I like to group a few different sizes and shapes of bud vases together...

Pink ones for our kitchen...

This is my favorite vase not only because it's pretty and blue, but also because it was my grandmother's.

Finally, here are my hydrangeas...it's too early to to cut the blooms but soon enough I'll have plenty to scatter around.

Are any of you into gardening? I've become infatuated with it since we've lived in our new house. It's especially rewarding during this time of year when everything is blooming and full of color.

Have a great weekend!

Encouraging Signs from the Yard

I'm happy to report that the rose bushes I bought a few months ago have not perished under my care. In fact, they are flourishing! Maybe I don't have a black thumb after all :) Truth be told, some other plants around here haven't fared as well, but let's not talk about those. Just focus on these pretty blooms:

This is probably not big news for you, but I'm happy to see signs that my gardening abilities are improving and that all of the hard work and money spent at the nursery hasn't gone to waste. It gives me the confidence to move on to the next challenge I've been wanting to tackle...a vegetable garden.

Also, I have to celebrate this minor victory now before the triple digit August temperatures wreak havoc on the yard as a whole. The hot weather has already plagued our hydrangeas and is starting to brown the dogwood tree on the left side of the house. Oh well, I'll take hot pool weather over the snow we had in February!

The Great Outdoors

Now that the weather has warmed up, I've been on a mission to get our yard in shape. One of the tasks has been adding some new landscaping. I bought lots of begonias, geraniums, and roses for color. I have a black thumb, so I'm praying that I don't kill it all!

Bed of Begonias, these hold up in our hot Texas summers

Double-Knock Out roses, supposedly these are bullet-proof. The real question is: are they Knight proof? Only time will tell.

Hot pink Geraniums

Climbing roses

We are blessed to have a yard full of azaleas. I only wish that their blooms stuck around for a bit longer!

 

Another duty has been cleaning up the outdoor furniture. I'll report back when this project is finished up!