May

Good grief, it's May already!  Last blog post here was January ....guess time just gets away from me!
Not much going on, but I thought I'd attempt to blog now and then. 
My niece and I are in the beginning stages of planning an European River Cruise for next spring/summer.  So, I was thinking that I need to try to learn how to take pictures.  She took beautiful pictures on our Alaskan cruise last year and mine were so-so.  I should probably take a photography class, but that's not in the cards at this time.  So, I'm just going to try to take a few pictures every day and see if I can improve my skills.  I do need to read the instruction booklet again -- and try to retain it this time!  So, here's today's pictures:  These are two hanging baskets I bought at Pepper Creek in Rockford -- love that store, lots of candles and gifty things and also beautiful plants. These have petunias and ageratum and I'm not sure what the little red flowers are, they look like small petunias.

 And this is one of the petunias up close -- it was a windy day, so I had to catch it between wind gusts!

 A shot of the back of the house where these baskets are hanging just off the deck.

 And a shot of the peach colored iris planted next to the house in the back -- by the former owner. 

All of the flower beds around the house need to be re-done.  The former owner put in rocks - as in pebbles, for mulch in the front and one side and half of the back.  It makes the ground like concrete to work in -- so I'm in the decision making stage of trying to figure out if I can rake/dig out the rocks a little at a time myself, or hire someone to do it for me -- at great cost, I'm sure.  Either way it's going to be a lot of work, but I'm leaning towards doing it myself and improving each spot as I go.  The only thing planted in the long stretch against the back of the house is this one clump of iris.  I'd love to dig out the rocks, widen the bed a little bit, and plant daylilies on both sides of the iris.  Hmmm, might have to start there, instead of in the front where there's a lot more work to do! I'll let you know.....

Until next time, blessings!