Musings and Meanderings . . .

I call these bluebells, but I don't really know what they are - I just know they are a pretty touch of color in spring!

Hi Folks! Hope all is well with you, and you are having beautiful spring weather like we are here in northern Georgia! The sun is shining, birds are singing, and pollen is flying so thick you can see it in the air! So I’m staying inside as much as I can these days. My sinus passages and pollen disagree vehemently, so since I can’t stay away from the sinus part, I try to stay away from the pollen!

Woods Violets in the back yard - a gift from little birdies!  These are smaller and the leaves are different than the ones that grow in most southern yards

Last Saturday’s Farmgirls meeting was a lot of fun! Poor Cynthia tried to teach me to knit, and I do think I got the basics, but I just felt freakish with a long stick extending from each hand. Mary Ann, however, brought a bunch of goodies that she’s been using, among them knitting looms and they looked like fun, so I ran to Walmart after the meeting and picked up one oblong loom (about $7) and some pretty yarn. Since Sunday, when I started on it, I’ve gotten about 2 ½ to 3 feet of a pretty scarf done, and it goes pretty fast.

Solomons Seal - native to the area.  The first summer we lived here there was one stem.  This year (our 7th summer) there are about 22 - 25 stems.  They are obviously happy, so I refuse to do anything other than let them be!

Saturday night hubby and I went to a ‘new to us’ restaurant about 15 minutes from here called Cinco Mexican Cantina. My aunt had told me about it, so I finally got hubby to agree to go there, and we will definitely go back as soon as we can! It is a ‘higher end’ Mexican restaurant, very modern inside, and the food was delicious! The chips were hot out of the fryer, and the salsa was one of those smoky, very finely cut ones and was delicious! I also had the 'Fried Chicken Tacos', ($10.99 with rice and beans) and I was instantly in love! They took chicken tenders and breaded them in masa (mexican corn meal) and fried them, then wrapped them in flour tortillas with lettuce, tomato and a homemade lime jalapeno mayonnaise. So light and fresh and flavorful - LOVE, I tell you!

A peach flowering quince - my mom gave me a small piece with just a bit of roots and I brought it home and set it out.  It has grown a lot, and finally has a couple of blooms.

On Sunday we worked a bit in the yard, pruned the buddleia (butterfly bush) 'trees' and a few other things, and I cleaned out the bed around the mailbox.  For dinner I did steaks on the grill, long grain and wild rice, and our favorite, grilled asparagus - yum!

Lily of the Valley - I planted 2 plants about 3-4 years ago. One, the white one, died. The pink one has one stem of blooms this spring, but there are two new babies come up beside 'her'. Maybe she's made up her mind to reproduce, at last!

Tomorrow my new friend, Mary Ann, and I are going nursery hopping in search of plants for our gardens.  I'm taking her to some of my favorite local places.  I think this will be a great chance for us to get to know each other better.  Mary Ann founded The Georgia Farmgirls.  For years I have been praying for a 'real' neighbor, and I think I have one now.  She lives about 3-4 miles from here, a left turn out of our subdivision straight for a few miles and a left turn into her driveway.  How cool is that!

Can you tell me, if this is a real strawberry, or one of those fake strawberry weeds???  A few of these came up last year out in our back yard.  This year they have multiplied a lot, and have a few blooms.  They don't look like the fake strawberry weeds, but you never know.  I love that the birdies leave me all kinds of fun gifts out in our back yard wilderness!

Many things are beginning to bloom now, and even more are finally beginning to  push up from the ground.  I am very excited that my lemon verbena, which I thought had died, is now beginning to put out from the roots!  I also thought one of my peonies - one that came from my great aunt Jewel - had died, but I dug down a bit yesterday, and not only did it not die, it has a couple of new shoots this spring.  Jewel was my dad's father's brother's wife, and she also taught me in fifth grade.  Do you know how hard it was to call her "Mrs. _________" instead of Jewel, which she had always been to me?  I must say it was one of my very favorite years of school!  She kept it fun and interesting for all of us!

My pride and joy - a lilac my dad gave me several years ago.  They don't normally grow very well here, but she seems to be happy.  She's got more blooms than ever before, and in the last 3 years has put on five babies from her roots.  Last time I talked to my Daddy about her, he said to leave the babies alone, but that was when there were 2, and I have 3 more this year and I am afraid they will crowd each other out and none of them will do well.  I'm going to take the baby from last year and move it this fall, and see how that goes.

I have a number of plants that my dad gave me over the years, and it seems that this year they are the ones that are doing the best.  The lilac, Chinese snowball, Encore azalea all seem to be just out doing themselves.  I like to think he is tending them for me.  I miss him so!

Up close Chinese Snowball bloom.  Anyone getting married who needs a gorgeous bouquet?  I'd love to donate!  Just a few of these blooms with a pretty bow would be a gorgeous brides bouquet!

Just a few more pics to share with you . . .

This is the same Chinese Snowball bush.  Some of the bloom heads are larger than my head!  They start off a pretty soft green, and go white as they mature.

The 'Red Pixie' lilacs are about to bloom out.  When these bloom, you can smell them all over the yard!  They bloom one huge 'crop' in spring, then re-bloom several more times over the summer and fall.

The encore azalea Daddy gave me - it's so gorgeous!

A hosta with dew on the leaves.

A close up of the Encore azalea.  Isn't it beautiful!

Well, that's all from me for now!  I think I'm going to make a new recipe I got from one of my friends.  If it's good, I'll try to post it on here soon.  Have a great day!!!  Blessings, Becky