C said it was fine for me to leave at lunchtime, and it was such a beautiful day that I did! I didn’t get it completely finished because…because crabgrass, but I extended the milkweed bed enough to put in the plants that I’d bought last month.

I even had help. Of course, my “help” kept grabbing the shovel, but he was enthusiastic!

Even with nearly no light, and I never watered them at all, the milkweed still knew spring was coming, and started to grow. I’m glad I got it in the ground; even if it gets cold again, it’ll still be better off there than in the garage.

I just learned that parsley is a biennial. Always thought it was an annual. It doesn’t produce good leaves the second year, though, so it needs seeding every year. Anyway, it’s alive.

I also moved the old lady’s clematis to the southwest corner of the house. It had leaves on the north side, but no blooms. I’m going to enlarge this bed, too, but not sure what will go here. I might take out the primrose (dunno), but I’ll probably leave the catnip.

Almost forgot my welcome wagon. The east side of the garage was covered with boxies. If I had box elder bushes, I’d be afraid…very afraid.

Yesterday, I made a little shade bed and planted the Dutchman’s Breeches and Squirrel Corn. This morning, I put the dwarf larkspur in with them.

Then, I put the cranesbill (wild geranium) in the “blank” spot I had left the last time I was flower farmin’.

I forked/raked back the straw and leaves to see whether the plants I’d put out had survived the cold. At least most of the wild phlox did.

This one was out of the ground, but I don’t know whether the ground heaved or I raked it out. I put it back; hopefully it’ll forgive me.

I believe these are both Virginia Bluebell.

Blurry because this giant compost worm didn’t want to stay still. Fat worm. Looked a bit jittery from the coffee grounds.

Surprise lilies were under a thick cover of leaves, but they just pushed the leaves up. They’ll green up once they get some sun.

I enlarged the morning glory bed to make room for wild bergamot. I hope I won’t regret that decision.

Got rid of the cups after I had a picture of what’s in the shade bed, or more importantly, where it is.

I left the straw and leaves in case it gets cold again and they need a blankie.

Now, I’d best get at the laundry–I’m LATE!!

EDIT: I also spray-painted my towel bar by the sink to match the mirror, and got the paint for my bathroom. May take pictures later…got too much to do right now.
Towel bar

I brushed a little paint on the wall last night; both to see the colour and so I’d be more “inspired” to get it painted.

AND, when I was supposed to be finishing the laundry, I was actually weeding the milkweed bed. No signs of life yet; I hope it survived!

P.S. I also saw 2015’s first flutter-guy. Either A question mark or a comma; I startled it when I walked up to the garage. It had been basking on the ground, and flew away, so no species ID.

I levelled out some of the piles I’d put by the creek last July 4th, and got some composted cow manure at Buchheit today,  so I planted the squirrel corn and Dutchman’s Breeches.  Tomorrow,  I’ll plant the larkspur with them, and the wild petunia in the blank space that I left the last time it was fit for planting. For now, though…Dutchman’s Breeches and Squirrel Corn, hopefully happy in the ground!

First, P got a flat tire as he drove into the carport after work last night then after he got it fixed and headed to work this morning, his fuel pump died on the interstate. D rescued him and MB, and he took my car to get to work. I had no car today, which kind of sucked because I couldn’t go cash my pay cheque, but not as badly as P’s day sucked, so meh. C drove me home, and I’m glad because my foot was hurting by the end of the day. In good news, my angry typewriters are making progress. Go, Mean Little Birds, go!!

P.S. Also…go, little hyacinth, go!

It’s been warm the last few days (fingers crossed!), and it was sunny when I got home, so I went looking around the Bistro for signs of life that I hadn’t noticed before. My one brave hyacinth is still growing, and there are buds on the lilacs (white and Manchurian), and some of the plants had green that’s stayed all winter, but I found some new stuff.

First, I dug up the bush honeysuckle by the gradge that I’d cut and killed last year. We tripped over the stumps a lot, but the roots were deep and I needed it to be dead and brittle. They were easy to dig; didn’t even break a sweat!

Daffodil by the front door that we never use.

Hostas out front getting a start.

Dark purple butterfly bush.

Truly native Lonicera flava.

I think this is…vervain? Too tired to remember for sure (springing forward kicks my arse).

The only one of my Agastache ‘Tango’ that’s showing life so far. I hope they survive–I love them!

The clematis that I’m going to move; it doesn’t bloom there, and clematis is too pretty to be by the trash can.

Extra MLB feeders, and an extra oriole feeder so I can take fresh ones out while I wash the used ones and the birds won’t have to wait.

I’m tracking the MLBs; should be 3-4 weeks, if the weather co-operates.

P.S. I just heard frogs singing!!!

I finally decided to move my bathroom mirror up enough so the doors clear my hairspray and stuff. While I had it down, I decided to get rid of the gold and white; I’ve never liked that. I decided upon hammered steel because I like it. Also because I had the paint already.

The “before”. Even P didn’t like the gold/white combo.

Taped up, paper-protected with the world’s ugliest Christmas wrapping paper, and ready to paint.

Primed with American Accents Ultra primer. I love that stuff.

Painted with the “hammered finish” spray paint. The hammered look doesn’t really show that much, but it’s better than the gold/white.

Now the light fixture. I hated this even more than the cabinet. I especially hated those round bulbs, but that’s another story, and this fixture will have to do for now, so I painted it. Taped up and ready to prime.

Primed.

Painted.

Closer view.

The finished product. I don’t love it, but with those spiral bulbs, I could perform neurosurgery in there, and it does have a sort of “industrial” look that I like. Eventually, I’ll replace the light fixture and the cabinet with something less busy.

I hadn’t ordered anything lately, and couldn’t imagine what the little box was, but it had my name on it, so I opened it. I bought this on the 28th or 29th of December, I believe, but it didn’t ship until the 5th of January because of holidays. It never arrived, so the seller sent another, which I got right away. Anyway, this one finally did arrive.

FedEx Smart Post may be “smart”, but it certainly isn’t fast!

So, now I have two. I use it as an eyeshadow instead of blush, and I guess I’ll be using it a long time…I’ve got lots of it!

The weather is supposed to be warm this coming week, and my beloved MLBs have hit the Gulf Coast. I can’t wait for the hateful little shits to arrive. Weather, behave yourself. Spring flowers, bloom. Go, Mean Little Birds,  go–northward bound!

Editing to add…it’s warm enough outside today that OK came out to get some fresh air on his yarbles. Boo was up there with him earlier, but I shot them through the window so I didn’t disturb them.

Crappy pictures, but I was using my phone, and they’re good enough to see that both of my clementine seeds have sprouted! The first one is the seed that actually had a root started on it when I put it in the pot, so it’s a little farther ahead.

The other one hasn’t been slacking off, though–it’s been hard at work in the dirt, and it just about ready to poke its little head out and meet the world.

Today sucked, and when I got home, a goddamned squirrel was in my hanging tray feeder. Now all the little bastards will come. Might fill that one with safflower instead of sunflower. I wish there was poison that would kill only starlings, grackles, and squirrels; I’d buy it by the gallon and all those little bastards would die.

In good news, I finally figured out how to make my “liberated” calculation Javascript work, so now all I have to do is the CSS to put the calculator on our site.