The throes of spring

Well, my posts remain sparse due to my slow progress in the house.  But spring has officially sprung, the weather has been amazing, and I have been celebrating life in the throes of spring.

Every fall, the changing scenery is so beautiful that I think it MUST be my favorite season.  But then, as winter fades away, we have spring!  And I think that spring MUST be my favorite season.

This window of time before the intense heat of summer doesn't last long enough.

Here are some of the wonderful scenes I've been enjoying so much:

The trees are turning green again, and all kinds of plants around The House of Goodwill are blooming.

It was 80 degrees on Monday and I saw my first groups of kayakers on the lake.

On Saturday, we actually saw a boat pulling some people on a tube!  In April!

One of my favorite things about being at a house in the "country" is the random dog and cat visits.  Seeing a dog on a leash in the Pine Lake subdivision is like seeing a unicorn.

Fortunately, the dogs are all really friendly.

The great part about it?

When all the other dogs are off leash, when I walk mine (on leash), I don't feel guilty leaving the bag at home. 🙂

The electric blanket I got for Christmas has been perfect for coffee on the porch on spring mornings.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the dogwood trees are all in bloom.

(There are four in the yard.)  So pretty!

Two of the dogwoods as seen from the porch.

What else is in bloom?  All the azaleas.  There are 22 at The House of Goodwill.

I wanted to gather some up for a vase but I ran out of time.  

I had to return to the home/house for the weekend but I'm hoping enough will still be in bloom when I return next week for a multi-colored arrangement.

There are azaleas down by the "beach house" by the lake too.

There is so much potential for this unfinished little building.

Down the road (after the big lottery win), it could be fun turning this into something special.

The colors! 😍

I made a big mistake in the fall.  Not realizing that some of these shrubs were azaleas (like the two flanking the front door), I trimmed them to size in October, unwittingly removing many of the flower buds that had been set for spring.  Azaleas should always be pruned right after they've bloomed; now that I know what the shrubs are, I'll be trimming them next month.

So there is one sad azalea in the back yard, and not because I pruned it at the wrong time; I never touched this one.

I'm not sure why it appears so dead or why there are barely any flowers, but I'll definitely be doing some azalea research.

I'll trim it down by at least half, and see what I can do to feed it.

There is Columbine too, lots of it, in the front.  

I remember seeing it the day we went to view the house for the first time.

Columbine is interesting, after it blooms in the spring the foliage dies down and you would never know it was ever there.

Right now it's so full and thick and lush it's hard to believe it will soon "disappear."

And finally, all the irises are just about to start blooming!

Forget fall!  I think it's clear that spring is the most beautiful season of all.  

I will be absolutely certain of this, for at least six more months...