The lake is beautiful, and yes it was dug by one of the sand companies. The children and all of their friends love to get filthy and build sand castles right by the waters edge. ( And often even farther in ). We take bread out to the ducks and geese. Sometimes they come in flocks roaming the neighborhood for more food. They will come right up to my door, and the kids and I will feed them the bird feed we keep for the feeder. We sit on the steps and watch them come right up to our feet. If you are not wearing shoes then you have to sit on the top step or they will eat your toes!!

The only problem with the lake is that it is really deep and silty. Not at all safe for swimming, And we have trouble keeping the young people in the neighborhood from going back there with no supervision. We don't want anyone getting hurt ( Or LITTERING )
The Orange rose is Pinata. I didn't think it had a plant tag, but the leaves and blooms were so dense they were hiding it. I found it this week!! Yea. Online I read that it is often compared to Joseph's Coat. I have one of these and it is the fastest growing rose that I have. I rooted it two years ago from Ms. Marie's garden and it's first summer it outgrew the large pot I had put it in. I wish I had a place to put it in the ground. The Pinata rose looks a little less thorny

and the flowers seem to last a lot longer, but that could just be a faulty memory. The flowers fade to molted red and white. At first I didn't seem to like the older flowers too much, but there are so many blooming in bunches on such a small plant that now I think it is very pretty. I really, really, really hope it continues in the same way and it is not the magic of the greenhouse it was born in. Because I am not as good a gardener as the greenhouse professionals. For example when I root things or grow them from seed, they never never look as pretty as the trays and trays of pretty flowers that we are tempted with in the plant store.
This week I have made a discovery..... for all of my previous gardening attempts I first took off the top layer of ground. It was all crab grass and not the easist thing to remove. I did it in small sections because I would get tired. Then I would dig in and amend the soil by hand ( and shovel ) This was how I did it until the two circle gardens in the front yard. I got a great used tiller for Christmas. My husband looked at me and said " You want WHAT for Christmas? What is wrong with you?"

( I asked for dirt for Mother's Day and my birthday ) There is no guilt if it is a gift!!!!!!!

Anyway, back from my wandering thoughts, I tilled these two gardens. The first one was planted last year with roses and all the blubs that I dug up from Mema's garden when she moved to Alaska. Thanks to Mema for all the beautiful Amarillis!! It did great except the grass growing thru it kept me busy ALL year. it was really hard to keep up!! And the other circle that only one blueberry survived in really got overrun and I retilled it this year to put in the smurf garden. It looked so pretty, all that fresh tilled dirt. But as they say...Beware still Waters....or in this case still dirt... Can anyone see where I am going with this?? Without further ado....My discovery is this.... when you till CRAB GRASS ( from now on to be known as make the gardener Crabby Grass ) all it does is break it into a million sections and implant them 8 ins. down in the ground where the live and spread and dig in roots that come up to plague you two or three weeks later!!!!!!!!

I spent the entire weekend digging and weeding that awful stuff! But you know as with any gardening there is always a silver lining. I bet you my winter weary arm and shoulder muscles grew two sizes this weekend.
Now I will leave you all. All the children are off to school, and I must go forth and practice my bike riding so I don't embarrass myself when I take the Children on the 25 mile bike treck with my son's scout troop on Easter weekend. I had forgotten how sore your situpon can become when you have not used it to situpon the torture device known as a bike seat for over 20 yrs.

This too shall pass and after two weeks of practice it really is getting better. But I haven't even gotten up to 10 miles a day yet!!!

How will I ever do 25? Why do we do these things to ourselves? Delusions of youth and fitness??? Hmm... more riding and practice = stronger muscles. And then Stronger muscles = Easier Gardening! I WIN!! Cool Beans!!!
May you all have sunshine and mid 70's today,
Dawn

- Tulips in bloom

- I could have sworn the plant marker said red. I suspect small children playing musical plant tags. That happens alot around here.

- Distant Drums

- Pinata Rose
May we live in the joy of all of God's gifts and endeavor to appreciate them.