This gorgeous Azalea is starting to flower in Doug's garden.
Spring flowers never fail to catch me by surprise, one moment there's nothing and the next .. splash!

                        

The same goes for this Big Leaf Maple .. nothing, nothing .. and than .. pop!

          

      

The tulips are out and are adding some serious color!

 

And although the first daffodils are already fading, lots of later and different varieties are now coming up ..

   

We finally cut back the Raspberries, a little late but it should still be fine, and set up a simple trellis to contain them a little better.

When we arrived here last year we didn't have time, and didn't pay much attention, to what was growing in the yard, and the long canes got all tangled up and were a pain (literary) to deal with when it came to picking the fruit.

 

We already pruned the Blueberries back a little a couple of weeks ago and they are starting to leaf out:



The first flowers are appearing as well .. we might have a good crop again!

                                                    

At the end of the orchard grows a clump of Bamboo. Not much to look at, but it dawned on me that I could actually make good use of those long, sturdy and bendable stalks!

                  

I'd been searching for something to make 'hoops' for my vegetable beds to drape bird-netting over. Many people use PVC pipe for this but I really don't like those stark white un-natural looking things. So .. have bamboo .. make hoops!

Perfect!

We also added a third bed, and I planted a few more cold-weather seedlings like Romain lettuce, Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Kale and Brussels Sprouts.
Unfortunately, the seedlings I buy at the garden center all come in 6-packs and I really don't have room for all of those.
I'm actually thinking of taking some to Farmer John (him of the real happy chicken) and trade them for eggs? I know he has a huge vegetable garden, he might be up for it.

Talking about blueberries to come, I better start emptying the freezer of last year's batch, so I made another Blueberry buckle:

Since I'm terrible about remembering which recipe I used when and why, I always end up using yet another one. This one came out a little denser and a little wet at the bottom but tasted as great as any other .. delicious!



Oh, and look at this .. (already a couple of weeks ago) I started another hobby. 

I know, like I needed another, but I blame Beverly from Bee Haven Acres, who got me inspired once again.
She recommended following this lady on Youtube, Harriet de Winton, and so I did ..

I got me some paint and brushes and paper, I like hobbies that don't cost a lot, and I was in business!

You start with a lot of  exercises to get used to the medium and what you can do with different brushes, more or less water and mixing your colors, but fairly quickly she has you paint something more 'real', like all kind of different leaves ..

Like Beverly, I'm most interested in learning how to paint 'nature', as in birds or plants and maybe the occasional landscape.
Lord knows I have hundreds of pictures I could use as a reference.