Slow Start to Spring May 4, 2013

A single Big Smile tulip came up this year among the daffodils.  The daffies are almost gone, but hidden safely in their midst from rabbits and voles, a single yellow tulip bloomed this week.  It used to be a huge clump of yellow tulips in previous years but disappeared completely --and forever, I thought--last year.  Will wonders never cease?

 

And I was so glad to see it!  It marked 23 years since my mother's death in 1990.  I used to have a clump of red tulips (her  favorite flower) in the front of the house that bloomed each year on April 30th, but they have been gone for two years now.  A yellow tulip can lift your heart also!

 

We replaced the "kick bells" my grandsons loved.  This handcrafted kinesthetic sculpture was near the garage doors on Carriage Drive and welcomed all three grandsons (who each had to kick them to make a sound) as they visited Didi and Grandpa. We moved them here to South Hollow with us and they lasted three years until they were eaten by snow removal equipment two years ago.  I have the individual bells still but the welded stems that held them up were mangled beyond recovery.  Someday I may find a welder who can refashion them for me,

 

 

but in the meantime, this new sculpture will do.

 

 

We want our new granddaughter, Lily, to have some kick bells too. This one with a wind chime we placed in the back garden.  We put another one with three bells in front near the garage doors to greet her when she visits.  We just need to remember to store them inside during the winter!  And Lily may just gently tap them to hear the sound--unlike her boy cousins and their kicking!

 

We also bought a new Nyjer seed feeder for the goldfinches--and they have already discovered it. We had a squirrel we could not discourage so we hope this mesh feeder does the trick. The woodpeckers, the flickers and the chickadees still visit the suet cage.  The bluebirds come around once in awhile now.  I think they are busy nesting. They ate the suet all winter.  These birds didn't mind me in the garden just a few feet away from them today.  We hope Lily gets to see them sometime too.

 

 

So the back garden border is coming to life.  We have edged and mulched it and divided some of the perennials.  Today I planted a yellow columbine, a blue pincushion flower, and a clump of red thrift.  We'll see if the rabbits leave them alone.  They have not been slow to start eating my plants this year!