Finally!!!

Finally I am back to posting for a day, and finally I am getting a few blooms in the garden!

This has been such a busy time for me and I haven't been keeping up with all I've had to do very

well. I have been painting in the house, painting in the studio, and even painting in the garden.

I have practically been living in these painting clothes of mine and I HATE TO PAINT!!!

This has truly been the coldest Spring that I can remember since I planted this garden.

 Our temps have been downright frigid. For over three weeks our lows have been

 in the twenties and our highs in the forties. This makes for very slow progress in the garden.

Everything is blooming so much later than most years.

 These are pictures that I took this morning.

I can hardly believe that I am taking pictures of forsythia in the middle of May! My lilacs

are all sitting in tight little buds and the trees too.

Some years, we have had warm days in early Spring and things have progressed along only to

be frozen later. I hate losing my lilac blooms to a late frost. I wait all year just for them!

This year however, it has remained cold and windy, and it is as if now Spring has just

arrived here.

Okay...I will now quit complaining and just enjoy what I have been given!

I do have one tree in the garden that is opening to blooms. It is an 'Autumn

Brillance' serviceberry. This tree is the first to bloom in my garden and the first to fruit.

I love it...the birds love it...and it is always a race to see who wins the prize.

Sadly for me, the birds usually win. But, when I win, the fruit is wonderful baked in muffins,

and made into syrup.

Just simple little blooms with no fragrance at all.

But beautiful, none the less.

I have been working on a few projects that have been sitting around for

a long time. I decided it was time to get them painted and put them to use.

I stole got this old dresser mirror from my daughter. It was in very rough shape,

but I'm crazy for mirrors, so I decided to try and salvage it. It was totally coming apart

in every place possible. With a little wood glue, paint, and old sheet music,

I was able to give it a new life in the studio.

I haven't hung it up on the wall yet, but I do like how it came out.

And if you noticed in one of the 'before' pictures of the mirror,

it was sitting on an old settee that I bought at a thrift store last Fall.

I was able to get a coat of paint on it as well, and will be recovering the cushions in this

pale blue-grey fabric sitting on it now.

I had to replace some of the caning on this and wow, what a process it was

taking out the broken caning and adding the new, but it will be worth the effort I put in.

I loved the piece the minute I saw it and knew that I could find a home for it somewhere.

WELL... it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, because this house is crammed full

of stuff that I just knew I could find a place for.

 -big sigh-

Now matter how hard I try to stretch the square footage in this house,

 it just won't do it!

We are finally having a beautiful day outside today, so I am off to work in the garden, but

will be coming by to visit all you dear friends tonight when it is too dark to see out there!

Catch up with you all soon, as I have missed you all in my absence!