the last of my spring tulips has faded and gone,

but i have this to remember them by.

don't you just love when it all starts in the garden?

first the tulips and squil bloom here~

then it's my bleeding heart and columbine.

oh yes! let's not forget the flowering crab...

all around the city things are in bloom now and this is a peak at our yard.

one of those tulips~ still beautiful in my eyes

so the deck is ready for summer. on the days i take time to

rest outside, there's no better spot than our lower deck. it's 

wrapped in vines of a couple different sorts and there's a swing and a fountain i put

together many years ago that still serves us well .

if the bugs aren't bad~ it's my little slice of heaven here in the city.

these fabulous citrus green planters were snagged at a yard sale.

************

a big change in our front yard happened a couple weeks ago. see this huge ash tree? it

used to bring me joy. it wasn't very big when we bought our house many years ago,

but it grew fast and provided lots of shade. over they years though it started to shed

these awful, messy seeds twice a year. those dirty seeds became my nemesis and

this spring i started yimmeling about having it cut down.

it took some convincing, but truly- i swear every single one of the billions and billions

of seeds that fluttered to the ground took up residence in my gardens and the landscaping

and heck~why stop there- even the lawn! they also tracked in the house.

 it's gone now

 and in it's place is the mulch they made out of it and left for me.

*do i miss the shade? you betcha. BUT...i think the grass will finally grow

around this garden now and maybe in about another year i won't have to

weed another million or so trees coming up everywhere.

we've still got the stump and i'm actually having fun using it as a bit of 

garden art. there's a big planter on it and it's kind of a cool riser.

martha stewart calls cement replicas of these "du bois" i believe.

we needed to mulch anywhoo so for our money- we got our own back. haha

here's the planter that's on that big stump now.

sweet woodruff, one of my favorite ground covers.

i have a busy week to look forward to.

yesterday i had the pleasure of having a family i'd never met hire

me to take family photos for them and so i have a lot of retouching to do.

then later in the week we have two weddings and i'm doing reception flowers for 

both of them and my sister is coming to stay for a few days!

it's going to be such fun!

hope yours is too,

xo, beth