Blooms, Dollhouse Crochet & Blog Friends

Our farm plantings are beginning to awaken.. the Star Magnolia puts out such beautiful flowers!

Some of the flowers have shorter petals, and the one below has longer ones.  There is a lot of lichen on this little tree. 

I added this one so you could see the bud at the top. 

The "Oregon Grape" is in bloom.. and thanks to my readers from across the pond I now know that our Oregon forefathers played fast and loose with plant names.. that this is known in England as "Mahonia".. and indeed the Governor's Mansion in Oregon is called "Mahonia Hall".  I get a kick out of them naming it Oregon Grape and making it the state flower. LOL! 

It certainly brings color to the farm yard! 

The bees were so happy that these are in bloom and there was a quite a bit of buzzing around the plants.. see the big huge bumblebee dining on the nectar? 

Rhododendrons are in bloom in many places, but ours are withholding judgement on the weather and are waiting... 

The 3 goldfish and 2 koi are coming out of hiding a bit more.. hope the dastardly great blue heron and equally murderous raccoons don't get them. 

Looking to the left of the pond is our woods.. a patch of sun shone on the Trilliums there. 

Did I tell you that I found a crocheter on Etsy that specializes in tiny dollhouse miniature crochet?  I ordered this little afghan and it's only about 4 iches square.. the stitches are TINY!

It is too small for the bed, and I *could* put it on the crib.. but for now it's laid on the porch swing for a cool nights swinging.

I then ordered 4 little pillows for here and there in the house.  These are about 1 1/2 inches square.  They are on their way here now.  The crocheter lives in Canada. 

Each one has a pink flower on one side and lavender on the other side.

This has sure been a busy week for me.  Sunday dinner at our son's house, Monday dinner at our other son's house. Tuesday I drove my sisters to Springfield to testify to leave a motor ban on Waldo Lake (it's one of the 3 purest lakes on the planet!) - the vote was 3 to 2 to leave the ban on by the Oregon Marine Board. I didn't get home until midnight and had to be up at 7 am to lead a bus tour of the gorge for the Friends of Multnomah Falls on Wednesday.  Yesterday I volunteered at the falls and had a wonderful surprise, a blog friend of mine came to visit me there, Betsy from Spokane!  Today I had lunch with my blog friend Gracie and then went swimming.  I never imagined that I'd make such wonderful "real life" friends from blogging.  It's the best bonus of it all!  Thanks for visiting and the delightful comments.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)