Backyard favorite fleurs.

Valley Forge afternoon

Up the stone steps to the trails on the hill at Valley Forge National Park.
My favorite spot and searching for magick and faerie rings. It's quiet and there are butterflies and deer. The trails and paths wind in circles around the mountian. The day was perfect weather and I wish that all summer long could be exactly the same. But then, if it was all the same there wouldn't be special days just like this one.

Dogwood Festival

The second week in May every year this town holds their annual Dogwood Festival.
A Carnival of Sorts always plays in my internal soundtrack.

The Herb Festival at Landis Valley

Rites of passage in spring...

This weekend Ethan learned how to mow the lawn. It's definitely going to take a while until he's got the job down pat, he had lots of help and much supervision, but he certainly didn't lack any enthusiasm and finesse for the job. He even adopted a "throw the cord over the shoulder to keep it out of the way" move. If only he would keep this excitement over lawn mowing! I'm pretty sure by the time he is older it will have worn off so I'm documenting this here so I can look back and say oh you used to *love* to mow the lawn!

It's obvious from the pictures that the garden needs edgeing again. But I am totally pleased at how the azaleas look and my freshly painted red garage door. (even though they don't match) Next is a little stone pathway leading from the back porch to the garage. There's always a project to be done.

Oh, May, it's a waiting game..

May is all about waiting. Waiting for the weather to get warm. Waiting for no more frost warnings so that you can rest assured that your hard planting work and delicate annuals and flowers survive the night time hours. Waiting for the perennials to grow bigger. Waiting for all the summer garden duties to switch into full swing. The weekends are now mostly filled with the hardscape. Edgeing, mulching, raking, sweeping, getting outdoor tables and furniture out of storage. Preparing.
I can't wait! I'm so glad it's here.



The lilacs along the fence line smell so wonderful.




Do you remember the ball cart at recess? It was wheeled out and was filled with all the different sizes of rubber balls... we used to call them four square balls or dodge balls. They used to be red.
That specific red reserved for just those types of balls. It was iconic.
Guess what? They make them in all kinds of colors now. Blue and pink and green. Who wants to play with a green ball in the green grass? It's a tad disturbing, but we own one now. A blue one. Atleast it doesn't camouflage with the lawn.




Feather the squirrel is back for another year. He has no fear. He's into extreme squirrel sports like fence walking in a yard that contains an eight year old boy. That's a squirrel's form of The Gauntlet.




We think he's pretty entertaining and cute. Except for when he does things like burry his sotres in the lily garden.