End O' April

Toby and I are relaxing tonight after a very busy 2 weeks.

I am teaching Sunday school for the next two weeks, and getting ready has taken a great deal of time. As I may have mentioned before, we have no curriculum. Each of us decides what we want to talk about when it's out time to teach. I found this book and thought it might be the basis for a couple of lessons. So, I've been much involved with Heaven(!!) of late. Very interesting.

And just today I finished planting for the spring. Well, almost. I still have to find something to put in the two big pots at the end of the back stairs. But all of the annuals are in, and not a moment too soon! With our weird early spring, the perennials are ready for dead-heading before I had finished planting annuals. The irises are about finished, but the roses have been opening up in the last couple of days. Here are some of my lovelies today....

A bright yellow iris that I got from Linda. Did I?

A blue Japanese iris that I got from Karen Williams, here in Valley.

A very sweet lavendar rose. Isn't the color remarkable?

An orange and pink variegated rose.

And, of course, the basic red rose. Have I mentioned how much I love my garden?

Big Blow

We survived last night's big blow, but it did make for a stressful evening and late night. I had the closet all prepared in the basement and my pockets loaded with keys, credit card, cash, and a flash drive with essential documents on it. My new lantern, which I bought yesterday with Linda's help, was charged and ready to go. I said "good bye" to Carmen and begged her to find us among the rubbish if we blew away. Toby, of course, was going in the closet with me. My worst damage, thank goodness, was a broken limb on my georgeous snowball bush. Here is is waiting to be cut up and put in the garbage.It was so heavy with blooms that it couldn't withstand the winds. But I cut off some branches and made a bouquet for the living room.Even with the remaining it makes for a really nice show for this year. Like all of the blooming things this spring, the snowballs haave been loaded. Barbara's baby, first year, snowball even had several blooms on it.Linda and I were going to go to Leroy, KS to visit a large nursery there yesterday. In deference to the impending storms, however, we opted to meet at Stone Creek nursery in El Dorado. I offered advice on what to plant in her wash tubs, and picked up a few things for me, of course! It's too wet to be in the garden this afternoon, but I hope to get some annuals planted tomorrow. The coming week is fairly busy, leaving little time for gardening.

My Mother, the Methodist!!

Just goes to show that we are never too old to change. Last Sunday, Grandma joined the Methodist church. Here she is with the pastor getting "sworn in."
She's not given any indication that she's in fear for her immortal soul, so I'm guessing that being a Methodist must be O.K. now.