End of the week

We had a lovely, quiet Easter day at home.  Thankful and gratified by the eternal gift we've been bestowed.  "We are the Easter People and Hallelujah is our song."  Pope John Paul II.

I am embellishing our front porch again.  Now that I have all the furniture repainted and ready for another summer, I am now working on the flowers that will be beautifying it.  I wanted some more red flowerpots this year.  I already had a smaller red ceramic flowerpot and have always loved how it brings up that wonderful, bright pop of color and unifies door and pillows on the settee, and definitely wanted some more.  So I bought a larger one and put a hosta there.  I love the combination of the bright red with the lime green of the hosta.  I have also planted the firsts 'Impatient' plants and will be filling that flowerbed by the entrance with lots of them soon.  I love impatiens.  They are needy plants, afternoon shade and moist conditions are a must, but they are lovely fillers and I definitely want lots of them this year. 

I also bought two hanging baskets to replace the ivy geraniums that I had there last year, but unfortunately brought outside way too soon and were burned by frost.  They are the most beautiful of hanging plants too, even the name sounds lovely—bridal veil.  I have never seen type of a plant before, and they have tiny olive-green leaves and beautiful, delicate little white flowers that resemble the baby's breath, cascade in a decorative veil. 

We watched the 'darkness' for the first time this year the other evening.  We sat on the front porch and talked, and dreamed and talked some more until darkness finally descended upon our little white cottage and the solar lights were turned on, letting us enter into the magical world of night.  I can hardly wait for the firefly summer nights of June.

The back gardens are doing lovely as well.  The roses are opening up and bushes are heavy with hundreds of buds ready for the first explosion of the year.  This one here is one of my favorite: Paradise roses.  A true classic rose of form and color. The perfect 5-6" blooms (petals 30) are deep lavender edged with a lovely red violet. A truly wonderful and unusually colored rose produced on a continual blooming plant.  

Another favorite:  Ellie roses

More red flowerpots for this year...

Also need more geraniums...

The rose paths...

Soon these bushes will be so big, they will form an arch, and close that path 

love it!

The perennial Dianthus flowers.  Love them so much.  They keep the garden alive all throughout the year while the angel watch over them...  

The Fisherman surprised me the other day with the gift of the first Queen Elizabeth rose of the season...  

I love seeing the metamorphosis that takes place in the life of a rose when placed in the loveliest of small vases...  love roses in every form.

Tomorrow will be another week of crawling before I can fly at my new job.  God, such anxiety producing learning a job is... trying to absorb all the details is overwhelming. Why did I get myself into this, I have to wonder.