a bit of an update

You know, it's mostly spring around here now.  Well, it's exactly spring.  Balmy warm, slight breeze, and then sleet, hail, and big winds.  Definitely spring.

On Saturday, Jr and I decided to dig out the Russian sage and shasta daisies that take over the courtyard beds midsummer every year.  This was likely a bigger project than Jr anticipated, but he's a good sport and a hard worker, so we started with this, which was lots of sage and daisies with lots of roots, many healthy root systems:



We went to the nursery and bought these:



And then we dug and dug and five hours later, we had this:

 We went from disorder and chaos in purples, yellows, blues, oranges, and white, to tidied, ordered pinks, reds, purples, and white.  Soon we will repair the drip irrigation and cover the soil with mulch and in just a bit longer, as some of these die back, we'll head back to the nursery and find later-in-the-year bloomers and add them to these beds. 

 

 In other beds out front, these lovelies (whose name I cannot remember) are again brightening up a space under the pine tree.  Every spring, I think they are daffodils, and when I go to examine them, remember they are not a bulb, but a different spring delight.



Not far from the yellows, in the same bed, the ferns are unrolling.



So much going on out there during this season.  It all gives me so much joy.

And in other news, in addition to the garden activities, I'm still going to zumba, but now I'm wearing these new shoes from the New Balance store--cost just $20, regularly $80.  What a steal.



Oh and I almost forgot.  My jeans have been getting looser, thanks to the zumba and weight watchers, but  I really don't like shopping for jeans.  It's all too complicated--what leg style, how should the pockets look, do these make my butt look big? and on and on.  So you can imagine my delight this weekend when I discovered a pair of Ann Taylor jeans that sadly I'd grown out of a few years ago and stashed in a drawer and forgotten that are two sizes smaller than the ones I've been wearing--but they fit now. 

Seriously, I love zumba.