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Day one of lambs was a pretty low key day. There are a lot of healthy moms with lambs who are doing really well so that means less to do in taking care of everyone each day.

After feeding the sheep this morning we castrated, docked the tail and gave an ear tag to one lamb that was born yesterday afternoon. Then I got Rico out of the car and did a little farm work with him. We brought a group of about 20 sheep out of one small pen and moved them to a large pasture through several gates. It’s so much fun to see Rico’s sheep herding training put to a really practical application. You could certainly run a sheep farm without a trained dog, but having a good dog to help really makes a difference.

And now for some happy and healthy ewes and lambs.

And a close up of a lamb born yesterday.

Then we headed out to the back pasture where all the pregnant ewes hang out to see if there were any lambs born over night. Voila! One ewe with one tiny lamb. So we gathered up the lamb and put him in the lamb wagon and headed back to the barn with mom following close behind.

We had this new lamb tagged, castrated and tail banded in no time and they joined a bunch of other mom/baby combos in a nice green field.

With that done it was time to play with puppies! My friend who owns this farm has a litter of six week old Australian Shepherd puppies, and they are so cute! This one fell asleep in my arms later in the day.

This little one is such a sweet and pretty little girl. GAH! I really love puppies!

Six weeks old is really the perfect age for puppies! I could sit and watch them play all day long.

They play hard and then the fall asleep! And they are so friendly and confident.

It’s really good timing to have an easy lambing season with relatively good weather when you have a litter of puppies you need to watch for hours on end! And they even got to meet a lamb close up.

They were all very curious and interested.

Since everything at the farm was so low key we decided to head into town to grab a warm lunch. But first, I got Rico out and worked him a little on some sheep. And he did some lovely work for me… of course!

I told my friend that if I had to use one word to describe Rico’s work today it would be “control!” it’s so amazing to see how I’m able to control how he’s moving the sheep around the field. All with verbal commands. I’m so proud of how he’s doing and I’m having a blast watching all his training show up in such a great way.

After lunch we headed out to the back field again to see if there were any more lambs and two ewes had given birth since we checked earlier in the day. But they were so newly born that we decided to leave them in the field for a few hours to allow them to bond before we moved them to the barn. Trudy messaged me after I got home to let me know that one of them had another lamb! I thought she looked like she wasn’t done.

It’s so amazing to see instinct kick in. These moms just know what to do with their new babies.

It was raining pretty good during our trip to check for lambs and I got pretty wet. When we got back to the barn we were back into the pen with the puppies for a final play session of the day and a little early dinner. The puppies who were a little slower at eating had the last part of their meal elevated so the little piggy puppies didn’t eat ALL the food.

They thought it was terrible that they didn’t get to eat all the food.

Here’s my boyfriend Isaac (on the left) and Elsa, two of the three wonderful guard dogs who keep all the moms and babies safe from predators.

I’m betting we have a good number of lambs to take care of in the morning. And the weather is supposed to be really gorgeous tomorrow. A perfect day for lambs.

After a nice warm dinner tonight I hit my sewing room to do two things. The first was to square up one block in each of the many fabrics I’m using in my Brandon Mably leftover quilt so I could see a good variety of them together. I was really anxious to see these blocks up on the design wall, but since I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that until my green quilt top was done, I pinned that final diagonal seam…

Then I sewed the seam, pressed it and trimmed the two remaining corners.

Only borders left to go now.

Before I put that quilt back on my design wall I tossed up the blocks I trimmed and grabbed a couple of quick photos.

I am soooo happy with how this looks! I’m so glad I cut those shark’s teeth sashing pieces just a little bit wider. It makes such a difference and gives this all such amazing movement.

And one piece of eye candy…

On the drive home I stopped at a lovely nursery to see if they had strawberry plants. I bought six of some ever-bearing varieties they had and a couple bags of compost to feed my raised garden beds. They had the most gorgeous selection of coleus plants!

The most amazing color of burnt orange!

I’m pretty tired tonight and need to turn in and get a good night sleep. More lambs tomorrow!

I got up early this morning and was on the indoor pickleball court at 8 am. I had a blast playing! I played 8 games in two hours and every one of them was close and really fun. I won half my games, which is pretty darned good. Not one game was a run away today. It was a great way to start my day.

It rained most of the day today. I had to go into the office this afternoon and decided to take my boys and their leashes with me so if the weather took a good turn we could get a walk in. And it was gorgeous when I finished at the office so we took a three mile walk along the Willamette River.

It was so beautiful out and it felt good to get our walk in a different place. My boys were fascinated with all the smells and sounds.

Rico surprised me with some master posing skills! Bender’s expertise appears to be rubbing off on him.

Saw this amazing blooming red currant along the way.

There’s just something so rejuvenating about being near the water.

When we got home I fed my boys and grabbed dinner for myself. And just as I was getting ready to hit my sewing room I got a phone call from my friend Linda. We yacked for at least a half hour, probably more, and then I finally headed down the hall.

After such an early day and a lot of physical activity I’m tired tonight so I decided not to tackle finishing up my green quilt top. Instead, I cracked out 30 more of my Brandon leftover blocks.

That makes a total of 45 blocks that are sewn and pressed and ready to be squared up. I need 80 for this quilt top.

And there’s two of those out of print Brandon fabrics. It makes me so happy to see them in a quilt block!

I just love seeing all these fun prints and wonderful color with the graphic black and white fabrics.

One more day of work, an evening pickleball session and then I’ll be up to my neck in lambs!!! I talked to my friend with the lambs today and she said that about half of her pregnant ewes have lambed so far, so there are plenty left for my two days on the farm. And the weather looks like it’s going to be pretty much perfect! I’m so excited!

And it’s always nice to have a short work week.

I hit my sewing room after I did my blog post late last night and started cutting my Comb Stripe fabric for the corners for my new Brandon Mably blocks. I got about 3/4 of what I need for 80 blocks cut and then called it quits to get ready for bed. I cut the rest of the 80 squares I need during my lunch break today.

I had planned to finish sewing my green quilt top together tonight and then get the edges trimmed. But I convinced myself that I would certainly do it tomorrow night if I allowed myself to have some fun with these Brandon Mably blocks tonight. I felt confident I could trust myself this time so I felt good with this negotiation with myself. I told myself that if I worked on the Brandon blocks tonight, I couldn’t put them up on the design wall until my green quilt top is done.

So I started prepping the pieces to add the triangles to the pieces I sewed last night. First I had to cut all the striped squares into triangles. In order to maintain the swirls where the blocks meet it’s important to cut all these pieces the same so that the stripes are oriented the same in all the triangles.

Here’s the 160 triangles ready to go.

I decided to take a few minutes and press creases to make the centers of the center strips and the triangles to make putting them together quick and easy. I folded the center pieces in half with wrong sides together then pressed a 1/2 inch crease on each side. Here’s the center crease on one side of the sharks teeth sashing.

Then I folded each triangle with right sides of the fabric together and pressed a 1/2 inch crease in the center of the long side.

Pressing this way makes the pieces nest with the creases marking the center.

Here’s the center strips with the centers pressed and all ready for assembly.

It makes aligning and pinning them so fast and accurate. Here’s the view from the top… You can see how those two pieces of fabric almost align them selves.

… and a view from the side.

I pinned triangles to centers until I ran out of pins, then I sat down and started chain piecing.

I got these 15 blocks all pressed and ready to square up.

You might notice that I was careful to make sure all the sharks teeth are pointing away from the colorful center fabric. The details are important to me!

Those two fabrics on the top row are out of print Brandon fabrics from my stash. I think this is a good way to use up a little of that precious material.

I finished this block assembly up earlier than I thought I would so I decided to get some work done on my green quilt. And I’m glad I did! I sewed one of the diagonal seams remaining so that the quilt top is basically in two equal pieces.

Then I put all the pressed pieces for the Brandon quilt on a ruler and moved it off my cutting table to make rom for pinning and trimming.

Then I got organized on my cutting table and started trimming.

I wanted to trim all I could with the quilt in two pieces because I thought it would be a little easier to manipulate. I didn’t cut all the way to the center diagonal line because I wanted to trim those sections when the two pieces are sewn together.

But I did trim the two corners that are all assembled.

So all I have left to do on this is to sew that final diagonal seam and trim the few inches that haven’t been trimmed yet. Then it will be ready for the borders to be added. I have to be gentle with this now because all those exposed edges are on the bias.

It rained a good portion of the day today so we didn’t get our daily walk in until around 5:00. But it was nice while we walked and we got a good three miles in. That makes two good boys happy… and me too!

The Oregon grape blooms along the trail are so spectacular right now and their scent is in the air.

I’m playing pickleball early in the morning before work. I’m looking forward to it!

Two more work days then a nice long weekend!

I had intended to get my green quilt top all sewn together today… at least to the point of being ready to add the borders. I didn’t quite get that far but I did get it all sewn with the exception of two of the long seams. This quilt top is still in three pieces.

You might ask why I didn’t finish it. Well, I started chasing a squirrel instead.

Last night I mocked up some blocks for the “swirly” quilt using left over Brandon Mably fabrics that used a little wider strip of the sharks teeth. And I like it better with a little wider strip.

I love the way the sharks teeth give almost a star effect in those black and white centers. And it looks so three-dimensional.

This next photo shows the comparison between the mock-ups with the wider strips on the left, and the narrower strips on the right.

It might be hard to see the difference in those small photos. You might just have to take my word for it.

I was actually going to leave my sewing room to take my boys for a walk and instead I cut into those Brandon Mably leftovers and started cutting the centers for these blocks. I pulled a few Brandon pieces from my stash to supplement the leftovers and in no time I had 80 pieces cut forthe centers of the blocks I want to make.

I just LOVE those fabrics! Brandon’s designs are so fun and light hearted. I’m really having a blast creating with them.

Once these were all cut I decided to head out for a nice long walk with my boys. We really moved our butts and I was able to maintain a pace under 19 minutes for the first two miles! It’s been a while since I’ve been able to walk that fast.

We walked three miles by the time we got home. My boys were happy to see that the first azaleas are starting to bloom.

When we got home I decided that I would dig in and cut all the strips I’ll need so laid a couple of these pieces on top of the sharks teeth with spacing of 1-1/2 inches on the left, and 1-1/4 inches on the right. There’s not that much difference, but that quarter inch makes a difference! I prefer the one on the right.

So I pressed, cut, and sub cut some of my sharks teeth into 10 inch strips that are 1-3/4 wide. They will finish at 1-1/4 inch.

I was on a bit of a productive jag so started sewing the strips to the center pieces and with some focus and efficiency I got them all sewn and pressed in about 90 minutes.

I’ll just need to cut the striped squares and sub cut them into triangles and then sew them on. It won’t take long when I dedicate time to this project again.

I have promised myself that I will finish sewing the rows of my green quilt together and trim all four sides before I do any more with these fun blocks. We’ll see if I can stick to that promise when tomorrow night rolls around.

Back to work tomorrow but it’s a short work week. I’m taking two days off and will be busy with lambing on Thursday and Friday! I’m really looking forward to it and the weather looks like it’s going to be perfect! You can read about last year’s lambing adventures here and here.

I got up early this morning and headed out for pickleball. I didn’t have a great night sleep and didn’t play very well. I was the host for the lower level play this morning so the games weren’t as fun as they have been the last week. Plus I didn’t feel great.

I took my boys with me and tossed their frisbee in the park and wore them out before we headed home.

Once we got home I plopped on the sofa with ice on my back and watched a movie. It’s been a long time since I was lazy and watched a movie…actually watched it. So it was quite enjoyable and my back felt better after the ice.

I did spend some time in my sewing room assembling my green and low volume blocks. I didn’t get it all done but I probably got about 75% of the way there before I pooped out. I can easily finish it up tomorrow and probably get the borders on as well.

Before I left my sewing room tonight I decided to play with Brandon Mably fabrics left over from my Interweave quilt. I just folded fabrics and stacked them up to mimic the blocks, then cropped the photos and dropped them into a document to see how they look together.

Here’s the result.

That sharks teeth does some really crazy stuff in a sashing!

I’m liking this! I may play with the width of those sharks teeth pieces and the size of the corners. But I think this is something I’ll actually make. I might play with the different colors of jumble for teh strips just to see what it looks like. There are a lot of options.

Here’s a couple of blooms we saw on the trail this week. Red blooming current and Oregon grape.

And then this beautiful bush that my plant app identified as Sand Cherry. It has the mostly lovely aroma.

Tomorrow is a quiet day with some pickleball in the afternoon. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll actually go or take the day off. It would be good for me to get out of the house. I’ll play it by ear and see how I feel.

After some gorgeous, sunny and warm spring days, we’ve had rain the last couple of days. But after all that sun the trees in my neighborhood are exploding with blooms. My flowering pear trees and forsythia are gorgeous right now.

The air is filled with the lovely aroma of blooms.

The ornamental cherry trees around the neighborhood are in full bloom and are so incredibly gorgeous. They are the palest color of pink.

This small cherry tree might be new this year.

The blooms are so pretty.

I’m also starting to see the first tulip blooms!

And this is just the start! I just love this time of year in Portland. With all the water we get throughout the winter, when it warms up in the spring the blooms are so spectacular.

I’ve puttered a little this week in my sewing room but haven’t accomplished much until this evening. After our early evening walk followed by dinner, I hit my sewing room to finish up the 12 low volume nine patches I needed to wrap up this green quilt. I had already cut the strip sets into sections and matched up the sets of three sections for each block the other night.

It didn’t take long to get them all sewn and pressed.

Then I tossed them up on the design wall, moved a few things around, and decided that this might be the final design.

I wanted to add the little squares at the intersection of each row that will allow me to trim this up once it’s sewn together.

So rather than cutting more squares, I picked out the seams of some left over sets.

I soon had a little pile of squares and tossed them up on the design wall.

I’m thinking I can get this all sewn together tomorrow, then maybe add the borders on Sunday. We don’t have a sheep herding lesson tomorrow because it’s lambing season. I am playing pickleball in the morning, but then I’m free the rest of the day so can dedicate some time to this.

I played a LOT of pickleball this week. I played where I have my new membership on Tuesday morning and had a blast. Then I played outdoors with my club on Wednesday evening and had some really fun and competitive games. Typically, games go to 11 and you have to win by two points. We had one game that ended at 18 to 11. I was on the winning team!!!

Then I played again yesterday morning with my membership. There are four lovely indoor courts and we usually have a full house. But there were only four of us yesterday and I had a blast! We played for a solid two hours, just me and three guys. It was fun to get more accustomed to the playing styles, abilities, and weaknesses of each player and be able to take advantage! Most of the games were close and really fun. And I was exhausted by the end of it and really needed today to recover! It was so much fun that I just can’t stop thinking about it! This is so true!

Today I received some fabric I ordered last weekend. One is for the border for my current green quilt.

I’m thinking I might use that black and white stripe with my left over Brandon Mably fabrics. This will likely be my next project.

The idea is still formulating in my brain, but I’m close to knowing where I might go with this.

It’s getting warm enough that my dogs feel the need for water part way through our walks. There is a nice little park on the trail that we often walk that has a doggie drinking fountain. Bender was so disappointed yesterday that they haven’t turned the water on yet!

We had light rain most of the day today. But after work it stopped raining and we got to enjoy the sunset and some time outside together.

I’m so happy to see the weekend. Next week will be a short work week because I’ll be helping with lambing on Thursday and Friday! I can’t wait to get my hands on some lambs!

Yesterday was a full day. After breakfast a colleague from work came over with her lab-border collie cross puppy for a play date with my boys. They had a great time.

My next task for the day was to head out to my favorite local quilt store to drop off my quilts to get the bindings done and I wanted to buy some fabric…. the Climbing Geraniums fabric I need for the border for the green quilt I’m making and I wanted to pick up some of the new collection of Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabric.

I picked out some of my favorites. I bought a half yard of each one except for he green in the upper right. I bought one yard of that because I love it so much.

With the exception of the two rainbow fabrics, those are all part of the most recent KFC collection. And I love them!

Here’s all the step towers prints, designed by Kaffe Fassett.

I really love that design. And I REALLY love that design in the green! It’s so good!

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the border fabric I need. They have that design in several different color ways, but not the one I need. So I ordered some online yesterday, plus one other piece of fabric that I’ve wanted.

After that visit I played pickleball for two hours. then I hightailed it home so I could make it to my friend’s place for a St. Paddy’s day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. I took my boys with me so they could have a play day with Bella the Corgi.

These are the friends I stayed with during my power outage in January. I told them that came for dinner I felt like I was moving in for four days!

It was a great dinner and it was fun to catch up with my friends. The boys were happy and worn out.

I did hit my sewing room tonight to do a quick assessment of how many more blocks I need for my green quilt. And I decided that the basic size I have on my design wall will be it. Once it’s all put together and the borders are put on, it will be a nice size throw quilt.

I did need to make two more green blocks tonight to have all I need.

Then I wanted to decide how many more of the low volume blocks I need, and it looks like a dozen is the magic number. So I cut more strips from my white with black fabrics, but them all paired up into trios, then sewed and pressed the strip sets needed for 12 blocks.

I’m playing pickleball at 8:00 in the morning so didn’t work too long in my sewing room. I should be able to finish up these nine patches tomorrow night. Most of the work is already done.

It was another glorious day in Portland today. Gorgeous spring sun. the air is filled with the aroma of all the trees in bloom. My daffodils have opened up and are in their glory!

I messaged my sheep herding teacher today to see if she’s had more lambs, and she said she’s up to fifteen or so! I can’t wait to get my hands on some lambs in a couple weeks!

I got up early this morning and was on the sunny and warm pickleball court at 8:30. It was so gorgeous! Everyone was so happy to be out! It was such a great way to start a beautiful Saturday.

I took the dogs with me to pickleball because when I was done we were on the road to Molalla for Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson. It was so gorgeous and Rico was a good kid! And there was such a surprise! Fresh lambs. Less than a day old!

You know what that means! It’s almost time for me to spend a couple days with my herding instructor during lambing season! It’s just two weeks away and I’m so excited! This will be our third year hanging out with fresh lambs for a couple days in the beautiful Oregon spring time. Truly the best two days of my year!

When we got home I spent an hour on the sofa with ice in various places. I’ve played a good deal of pickleball this week and I’m trying to make the habit of icing after I play in order to stave off issues. I’ve been feeling a bit of a twinge in my shoulder and ice really helps. I felt great this afternoon following my icing session.

After dinner I hit my sewing room and wanted to finish up the green blocks for the remaining 12 centers I made a couple days ago. It took me about 90 minutes and I got them done and all squared up.

Then I tossed them up on my design wall. I’m getting really close to having all the blocks I need for this one.

I think I’ll need another full row of the green blocks to make this the height I want. it will be a throw size quilt. I’ll lose quilts a few inches in height when all the blocks are sewn together. I think I need seven more green blocks and around 20 additional low volume blocks. I’ll finish the green blocks first and get an accurate count for the low volume blocks once it’s all up on the design wall.

I auditioned a little strip of the black and white stripe with the border fabric and I really like it.

I think it’s a nice little detail. I’m pretty sure I have enough of that strip for the binding as well. since I have no plan for this quilt it may be some time before I get it quilted, so I’ll just fold up that striped fabric with the quilt top so I don’t use it on something else.

The last few days have certainly felt like spring. And the plants are responding. My daffodils have finally opened up. My forsythia is exploding with blooms. And my flowering plum tree is looking and smelling wonderful!

I love that my dogs so enjoy days like today that they are happy to hang out in the back yard all day long. . . just enjoying the lovely day.

This is the face of expectation that something fantastic might happen at any moment.

What a great way to go through life!

The evening sort of slipped away from me. I had thought I’d get a lot more of my green quarter log cabin bocks done but I only managed to finish up four of them before I felt tired.

So that means that I have 16 blocks completed. I really have no idea how many I’ll need of finish this quilt, but I’m guessing I’m somewhere around half way done, maybe a little less.

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to finish the edges of this quilt. I really don’t want to have a wide void of the low volume fabrics on the edge so I’ve decided that I’m not going to make setting triangles for this. Rather. I’m going to add small squares in the corners where setting triangles would go.

And then I’ll trim off the edge of the quilt along the diagonal of that small corner block. this tape measure is representing where the edge of this will be trimmed.

Then I’ll add a green border all the way around… maybe four inches or so. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be this lovely little number. And I’m pretty sure I saw a bolt of that fabric at my local quilt store.

That photo is much darker than this all is in reality. I like this fabric for the border because it’s got all the colors… dark, medium, and light green, with a little teal and lovely pops of orange and pink.

Here’s a bigger view of what that will look like.

That photo seems to be a little more true to color but is still a little dark.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll add a thin border of the black and white strip between the whites and the outer border. I’ll have to play around and see how that looks but it might be a really fun idea and will tie the blocks to the border. Just a touch… maybe a half inch of the stripe showing.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today. I had my annual furnace/ac maintenance check today and the dogs were relegated to the back yard for two hours while the technician was here. They were so happy out there that they stayed out there most of the day. So much glorious sunshine and lovely temps in the mid 60s. I’m pretty sure my grass grew an inch today!

My daffodils are finally opening up and the first blooms on my flowering pair trees (I have planted 11 in my back yard!) have just opened up.

My boys and I took a nice walk in short sleeves late this afternoon. There were so many people out walking and so many dogs. They also got several sessions of frisbee in the yard today. The more action they get, the more they want!

After dinner Rico was anticipating that action was imminent!

Rico RARELY gets up on the furniture. He was so intent on convincing me to go out and play that he had to get close to be the most effective in his plea!

I’m going to do all I can to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend. I’m heading out early tomorrow morning to play pickleball, then Rico’s sheep herding lesson. Sunday morning a colleague from work is bringing her puppy by for a play date with my boys. Then I’ll head off to deliver my quilts to the binding aficionado and will stop on the way back for a couple of hours of pickleball.

I’ll wrap up Sunday with a dinner of corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Paddy’s day with the friends who took me in during my power outage in January. My boys will get to come along and play with their corgi. I’ll be sure to get some photos of their shenanigans.

I got up early this morning and was on the pickleball courts with my new membership at 8 am. And I had a blast! Really fun and competitive play. I was well exercised by the time we finished at 10. I also played pickleball at the same place last night. The play was not quite as robust as this morning, but I had a good time and took the opportunity to practice some skills I don’t always get to use.

And it was a gorgeous day and my Boys, of course, demanded some action and attention. So they got several sessions of frisbee in the back yard sunshine and we took a lovely three mile walk in the late afternoon sunshine. I was in my shirt sleeves!

So with all of that in mind, I’m pretty worn out tonight.

I did want to work a little bit on my green blocks but didn’t think I would be able to stay with it for very long. So I decided to whack out a bunch of centers for my green blocks. I cut one strip of the Sand Dollars fabric, sub cut it into 2.5 inch squares and started adding the black and white accents. Chain piecing is my friend!

It may seem odd to have the strip on the top and the separate pieces on the bottom, but it works better for me. It’s easier to keep everything aligned. I just keep my little pile of centers to my left and slip them under the strip as I reach the end of the previous block. Then when I have a long strip done I snip them apart. I leave about 1/4 inch between the blocks so I have a little bit of room to trim accurately.

Then I cut them apart and press them carefully. I find that If my blocks are wonky it often happens with careless and aggressive pressing.

I managed to get 16 centers made so when I hit my sewing room tomorrow night I can just fly and maybe get these all completed.

You might remember that last fall I traded some quilt tops for long arm services with a friend of mine. I gave her six quilt tops to quilt for herself and she quilted six more for me. One of those quilts was gifted to my pickleball coach in December. My friend sewed on the bindings that I provided but I was left to finish the bindings. I hand stitched the binding on the quilt for my coach and my thumb is still bothering me. I have five more quilts that need the binding finished. I prefer a hand finished binding and do NOT enjoy machine-finishing bindings. I just don’t like the wear and tear on my hands. I need my hands for pickleball and sewing!

So when I was in a local quilt store when my friend was here last month I asked the woman working there if she knew anyone who could sew bindings for me and she said that SHE provides that service. So she called me a few days ago and I’m going to take my five unbound quilts to her at the quilt shop on Sunday.

You can see all these quilts here.

I don’t have any plans for these quilts, but since they’re mostly done, I might as well get them bound.

And what makes this especially fun? The shop where I’ll take my quilts has the new Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics in stock and I’m really excited to get my hands on some!

Today was the most amazing day! It really felt like spring has arrived in Portland. The glorious sun shined all day long and it got up to over 60 degrees! These boys definitely noticed how nice it was.

they were outside almost all day long as I worked.

My forsythia blooms have been trying to open up for over a week and they have finally decided it’s time!

Forsythias always remind me of my mom. Their blooms every year were a sign for her that spring had truly arrived. And now it’s the same for me.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this in its glory this year. Last year my yard guy cut it back in the fall so its bloom was a little underwhelming. I love to have it all sprangly and crazy when it blooms. Is “sprangly” a word? It’s definitely sprangly this year.

My first daffodil blooms have also opened up. It will be a few more days before they are in all their glory.

It’s so wonderful to have spring finally arrive. I know we’ll have more rainy and dreary weather before it’s all over, but the next week is going to be so glorious!