bloomin' awesome

The tulips are blooming!

Through the snow. Through the ice. Through the long winter. The tulips in our front yard have finally awakened and decided to brighten my days ... and my yard.

Quick recap: Last October, Aidan and his grandmother spent an afternoon lovingly planting tulip bulbs for us to enjoy in the spring. But after a winter marked by record snowfall, and then a late and unexpected mini-blizzard in April, we sometimes doubted whether or not the young bulbs would make it.

They did. And they're here! And they're glorious.

:: waking up ::

Although it's still chilly, it seems as though Spring has finally arrived to New England, and it's such a welcomed sight.

Here are some seasonal signs of the new season taken from around the yard.

I am however, still waiting for my tulips to rise and shine ....

  

hanging out on hampton beach

 

reason to celebrate

Pop the cork on the champagne.

I believe the end is near for the last measley patches of snow in our yard. With temperatures in the 40s and 50s forecasted for the entire week, I'd say it's meltage city, baby. 

It's like a scene from Frosty the Snowman, without the hat and pipe.

a tale of two [tulip] days

Last fall, Aidan planted a slew of tulips with his Grandma Cathey, and we've been anxiously waiting all winter for the little guys to peek through. Well yesterday was the day -- bingo! Tulip City! Or at least, the early stages of Tulip City.

So we snapped some pictures in the sunshine of our budding buddies, and emailed them off to Oregon for Grandma Cathey to oooh and aaah over with us.

Fast-forward 24-hours.

This morning, April 1st no less, we woke up to a not-so-funny April Fool's joke -- our tulips were buried under about 8 inches of snow. What a cruel twist of natural fate.

However, this afternoon, reaching out from beneath the cold blanket that covered them last night, our persistent friends, the tulips, poked their little green arms out to say, "It's all good. We're still here."

Way to go, tulips! Keep up the good fight! We can't wait to see you bloom!

local color

Quietly tucked away on a back road in Exeter, NH is a nursery that I've been dying to stop at ever since we moved here. It's a place where I could spend hours, and totally lose track of time.

Last summer, it was full of geraniums, hydrangeas, and stars and stripes bunting. In the fall, it overflowed with pumpkins, scarecrows, and Indian corn. At Christmas time, it gloriously displayed fresh wreaths, bright poinsettias and twinkly lights. And now that it's spring time, I was simply unable to resist it's charms anymore.

Churchill's Gardens is currently bursting with color. And on a sunny day, it's completely intoxicating.