Dance of the fuzzy bees

Twenty days have zipped on by since I last posted anything.  Not a whole lot has happened in that time frame...  Lots of rain, and I do mean LOTS.  Which sort of sucks the motivation out of ya - well it does to me at any rate.  I have managed to do some things out in the yard, like add this little flowerbed out front:

There are quite a few types of flowers housed in that little bed.  daffodils, hyacinth, astilbe, coral bells, bleeding hearts...  all of which are doing pretty great.  

The first daffodil

Hyacinth - on clearance @ Lowes - 3 bulbs for $2

Bleeding  hearts are starting to bloom!

The yard is becoming very well stocked with plants, mostly because of friends and family giving me pieces of their yard.  This year I have received (and planted, in some cases even shared with my neighbors) daffodils, ornamental grass, hostas, daylilies, foxglove, bee balm, sweet william, helenium, lily of the valley, plus the spiderwort liberated from a previous residence.  The flowers are certainly enjoying all the rain even if I don't because as we know April showers = May flowers.  I am seeing a great deal of bumblebees cruising around outside, too.  I watched them for several minutes two days ago; pairs of bees chasing each other doing a funny little dance of sorts.  I found myself captivated by the bees and wondered if this happens every spring and I am just noticing it or if I have some goofy bees residing near me.  Perhaps they are just checking out the sweet new pots on the front of the shed:

$1 clearance Lowe's pansies & some lobelia

Lovely azalea bush - $2.50, clearance @ Lowe's

Dandelions, they're just unexpected flowers.
Seems harsh to label them as weeds.

Rocks Ann also got to go outside for a bit today.  She was, as always, beyond delighted.  Visitors are often surprised at how well she behaves outside without a leash.  She just goes out to do her two favorite outdoor activities: eating grass & rolling on concrete.  Once she's done she'll walk right back inside, such a good (and smart) kitty.  

nom nom nom nom nom

Meanwhile, Forrest is inside.  He is not so keen on the outside world.  I carry him out and walk around the yard but he starts to meow after a few minutes - gazing at the door to go back inside.  He's the type of kitty that hangs out at the central A/C vents- clearly the outdoors are not really his thing.

 

O yes, let's check in on the veggies...

Peppers

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Cabbage, daisies, snapdragons, & pumpkins

Audrey III, right, with other Big Max pumpkin

Shawn is planning to put the garden fence up this weekend while I rake in the big bucks (ha) with a yard sale, and next weekend the veggies will be in their permanent  homes.

Meow

Rocks Ann has always been a very photogenic cat.  

She was eyeballing the new crystal in the window... until she realized I was on my way outside.  

Even Forrest is eager to  go out he enjoys watching the wildlife.  There was no need for the kitties to supervise my actions - I just went out to plant the spiderwort.  While digging  through the flower bed, I discovered a forgotten squirrel snack.  The first of many, I'm sure.  

Aw, nuts

Well, it's been a few days since I've been able to post.  The power went out last night and Monday night I was unable to save any posts for whatever reason.  Weekend went by very quickly - volunteered at Helen Krause shelter in Dillsburg on Friday night.  One of my buddies, Chandler was adopted since the last time I was there...  I'm sad I won't get to see him any more BUT he's got a new home so I am very, very happy for him.  Of course there were a few newbies, too.  Here are the girls -

Megan

Meryl

Megan is extremely friendly and Meryl is so full of energy, lovely cats that I don't understand why anyone would want to give them up.  It makes me so sad to see all these homeless kitties, there are 40+ in the adult shelter where I volunteer, the main shelter is even bigger, plus there is another shelter filled with dogs.  I'm thankful they have all found HOKAFI.  

The weekend was spent on a variety of chores as well as hosting dinner for Shawn's mom to celebrate her birthday.  Also took some plants to my friends new apartment - both indoors & out.  Yesterday I planted the spiderwort & checked out some of the flower beds.  I had initially thought that only one lily was coming back, but was delighted to see that there are others out there!  I'm hoping that they all made it through the winter, and no bulbs ended up as squirrel snacks.

Spring has indeed sprung

It is officially spring as of this past Sunday.  In celebration I crafted some markers for the veggie garden.  The inspiration came from several lovely products on Etsy and I spent a fraction of the price on 3x as many markers!  16 various sized tarnished silver plated spoons off eBay - some varnish & archival quality markers from Michaels and it was time to start my garden markers.

 

I flattened each one with a hammer on a metal workbench.

After consulting the seeds & seedlings I used the archival markers to doodle little veggies on scrapbook paper and glued it to the spoon. I'm no Van Gogh but they're cheery little suckers:

The beans are indeed purple.  We're growing green, yellow, and purple beans along with orange peppers, "carnival mix" peppers that include ivory & purple, and our radishes are sort of inside out.  

Such an oddball little garden we'll have.  

The lot of spoons included 3 very small spoons, and since my lovely BFF enjoyed the markers I crafted her a set of herb markers for her plants:

Naturally, my mother was highly impressed with my fly spoon smooshing skills and demanded her own set.  Since I love my mother dearly, Shawn and I went to the flea market in search of spoons.  He found a matching set of 10 (5 small & 5 large) for the low low price of $5 so I made my mom a set for her garden:

I must admit my mom's pumpkin marker looks much better than mine and the peas turned out pretty damn cute.  Both of our sets need onion & lettuce markers - they will be finished and varnished by the end of the week.  The varnish no longer sprays for some reason so the remaining markers are on hold until I get a new can.  I'm also trying out regular clear coat on a tester (strawberry) marker so I may not be using the craft varnish - we shall see.  At any rate I think the finished product turned out well and I'm eager to see how they hold up to the outdoors.

Forrest, on the other hand, is unimpressed.