Brave little Flowers & Growing Things

Hi there and thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Gosh it's been a busy week for me and it was nice to have yesterday to recuperate and rest and just hang out with hubby.  I did some knitting and crocheting and played Scrabble on Facebook (want to play a game with me?) and just enjoyed not having to go anywhere.  I have been watching the Snowdrops come up and hoping for them to open up so I could get a photo, but we got a cold snap and so they're in a holding pattern.. but I actually love them like this as they look like their name - a "drop".  We have many patches of them on this old farm-place.  Aren't they sweet?

I also love the vivid lime-y green of the moss on the trees.  Everything is drippy.. :-)

Below is my beloved stand of Black Bamboo.  I actually cut small branches of it, then cut those into short lengths of 1/4 inch and make beads out of them.. they have a natural hole as they are a hollow reed (a variety of grass, actually!), so it's really neat to string my own beads and make jewelry.  I love bamboo and have five different varieties planted here.  All are well-behaved "clumping" bamboos - they do not "run" and become a nuisance.  I have black, golden, blue fountain, variegated dwarf and one other amazingly fluffy and graceful, I must get the name of it.

Here is a bud of a Rhododendron, one of the early owners of our century old farmhouse sold nursery stock here so we have many different varieties of Rhodies and one of the biggest ones is 30 feet tall!!  It's that amazing magenta colored one.  I'll share photos of them all as they bloom.

Below are some funny hangy things (do you know what they're called?) that is on a filbert "volunteer" coming up in the middle of my 100 year old lilac.. darn those uninvited shoots.

The bearded iris are coming up!

Our Buff Orpington hen is checking me out as I take photos.. :-)  Her name is Bella.  I think! LOL  Our first Bella got taken by a raccoon, she was a Silver Laced Wyondotte and our grandson named her, so when we lost her I asked if we could use her name on the Buff.

It won't be long until we have daffodils! Woo hoo!

Below is the cutest little blue Vinca flower that bloomed by our waterfall and pond.

Below is our poor little pond and waterfall.  It needs cleaning after all the leaves have fallen in over the fall and winter.  The Blue Heron is a decoy to ward off real herons who have decimated our pond fish population.  The raccoons get what they don't.  We've re-stocked our pond at least 3 times over the years.  ::sigh::

Below is my rainbow granny stripe blanket.  It is finished except for the border - and I ordered my border yarn from a friend named Saskia from the Netherlands that I met on Ravelry - "We Love Lucy" who has an online shop named "Crafty Valley".  Hopefully it will be on it's way soon.

Well, time to heat up some burritos for hubby and I for lunch.  We made them last night for dinner - love leftovers!  Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a nice weekend, we sure are!

((hugs)) Teresa