I failed to take any photos last evening. The temps dropped a ton yesterday, quite dramatically, and once I got home I took my quick bike ride and then bundled up indoors.

But, I do have photos I took this weekend. First from my own garden:

The tulip and funny looking peach daffodil are ones I planted in the fall, and they are looking great! I am very pleased with them. I’ve got them in various places throughout the yard. Now, one of the things that seems to be a pattern recently is that Mr. Ink cooks a late dinner after working in the yard all evening. We all eat together, and then we sit around pouring over plant catalogs. A new one came in last evening. Mr. Ink was flipping through the daffodil section. He pointed to the ruffly peach daffodils on the page of the catalog, scrunched up his nose, and said “EW! Look at these!!!” I said “We already have those in the yard, they are blooming right now!” He says “Get them out!”  I told him in no uncertain terms that if he hadn’t noticed them at this point, then they stay!

I planted the primrose last year. I then spent the rest of the year trying to protect it’s petals from being eaten by rolly pollie bugs. I had a serious problem with them last year, I suspect in part to the decaying wooden garden edgers. We got rid of all of those rotting edgers, replacing them with stone. And, I had an influx of those darn bugs. Due to their large numbers, they really went after all the fresh and tender garden plants. This year seems better so far. The primrose bloomed this year, to my absolute delight!

The last one, the white flower that just won’t photograph well at all, is an anemone I planted in the spring. Again, it didn’t flower last year, and even looked like it would die off completely. But this year I see tender shoots and a few flowers. It seems to like it’s shady home near the lamium. All the tending I did of these tiny plants last year has paid off this spring. Can’t wait to see what’s next! I’ve got a bleeding heart and delphinium from last year’s spring planting that seem to be coming up nicely as well, even though they struggled along last year.

Over the weekend we also went to the botanical gardens. We have a membership now, so going for a short period works just fine. I failed to take pictures of all the nicely blooming magnolias. But, I couldn’t resist a picture of this guy:

We were right next to him, and he was unconcerned about us.

They also have a lego display going on right now, and Mr. Ink made sure to take me in to see my favorite spider.

A Lego Argiope aurantia! It’s quite fantastic. However, I failed to check out the other side of that lego display. Both sides of this spider in real life are really wonderful, but I didn’t think to see if the backside of this display mimicked the underside of the spider. I guess we’ll have to go again soon!

That’s about it for today! I’ve got some upcoming time off with Miss Butterfly at the end of the week. It’s supposed to rain the entire time, so I am not entirely sure what we’ll plan. But, with as fast as the weather changes around here, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with outdoor activities anyhow. I am willing to bet by the weekend I can have the Lintilla shawl done. That is, if I don’t get myself super involved in some around the house project that takes over everything!