Crabapple, Lily of the Valley and me...

Crabapple, Lily of the Valley and me...

to go with the new picture in my header, I will tell you that I love the beauty of nature.  I have always loved Spring because of the flowering trees that are always so calming to look at.  A few years back (12 or so) SHusband and I spent a lot of time deciding which and how many flowering trees we would get.  We could not decide, there are so many varieties.  So we bought.......... none.... 

Then about two or three, wait, ....excuse me a minute..................there, that is better, I had to wipe off the cat hairs on my computer screen from Boo Boo Marie's last visit to the keyboard-she loves to step on the keys!   

I digress, two or three years ago we bought a beautiful Red Bud tree which I have showed you here, and  three lilac bushes have been added to the flower beds around the house, two years ago SH bought me a Crabapple tree.  We live not far from a town named Cheektowaga, which is supposed to have a Native American meaning of "Flowering Tree" and the Crabapple tree is the symbol of that town, so they have been really everywhere near where I spent most of my life.

So, here and in the header is a picture of MY Crabapple tree. 

I know the Evergreen is not a standard flowering tree, but the Evergreen that we call our grandson's because we planted it in the front yard for him when he was a newborn and it was just a foot high, sure does look like a flowering tree to me-look at the beautiful green tips on the branches.  And the Red Bud tree is peeking at you from behind.

And, remember my little suggestion to look for hidden surprises? If you look left, right and center in the picture, you will see chipmunks-a triplet group. 

They have been running through that tree after each other, and when they see one of us, they freeze-like if they don't move, we won't see them! I am not a fan of these little guys, they are fine when they eat the fallen birdseed, but they just dug up and ate part of some bulbs that I planted and then chopped the flowers off of the Pansys.  When SGS was here this weekend, he took it upon himself to protect my flowers and he would go out and scold them, walk away, and then, they would run back to what they were doing.

I was just outside dividing and transplanting for the last time this year-Daisies.  And in the area where I was working were a bizzilion Lily of the Valley plants that were planted over 60 years ago by my SMother-in-law.  The smell is so thick, and luckily, not one that my lungs hate.  When I was a know-it-all teenager, I used to call them "Muguet des Bois".  A nice gift from my SH's Mom. I wish you could lean out my window and take a big inhale for yourself.   Below is a wonderful French gardening blog, that gives a nice little history about French Holidays, and the importance of this little flower.

http://www.frenchgardening.com/postcard.html?pid=3104967242182928

When we have had work done on the house over the years, I always point out to the crew where the important plants are that she planted, and to take care around them.  These plantings  mean a lot to us.  When the water lines were put in about 10 years ago, they needed to trim some large branches off our Maple trees, and when they did, areas that did not previously receive much sunshine were suddenly getting some beautiful light. That year, for our anniversary-a rose bush in that area bloomed where I had never seen one before.  Very exciting for us, like a message from her.  When work was done on that side of the house, I carefully dug up that little bush and moved it temporarily.  The following spring I moved it back, and not only is it doing well, there was enough of it to split and leave some in it's temporary home. 

SMIL also had some majestic Irises planted behind the garage, and when SH finally was worn down by my requests, he allowed me to have some scrub trees (Catalpa) removed from that area, and after fixing the soil, her Irises took off, I have since split them, and we can see them grow and bloom from our bedroom windows.  Funny story, about a month after we removed those Catalpa trees, there was a segment on TV that the red, cone shaped blossom on these trees was now being used in upscale restaurants, and you paid a pretty penny for this dish.  Always too little too late eh?

Well, I hope you liked my little flower stories, but really, more than stories grow here, thank you for visiting and sharing some time with me.