Remembering Spring.

March 30, 2013: 

Last year was the first year I really seemed to pay attention to the details of Spring as the season slowly unfolded. It's the first warm day this year and I was just out in the yard taking a look at things. It really surprises me how much complete excitement I get from seeing the new tiny triangles of green popping through the soil. 

I had forgotten that I'd found a pot of bulbs in the garage last fall and had planted them at the last minute in sets of 3's around the border of the left bed among the spirea. I had no idea what they were, where they came from or if they would grow. And just now I was to the point of clapping – delighted* to find them: hyacinth!

I love hyacinth so much I had the following thought: They are my favorite spring flower.

Until a moment passed and I thought of forsythia. Then daffodils, then tulips. And crocus! Last year my friend Nick told me Spring was his favorite season. I thought, Really? Who picks Spring as their favorite season? Thankfully I started to really pay attention to it that day. Spring 2012 in Chicago was spectacular. It came early and just gradually rolled itself out. And the flowers bloomed: quince and lilac and all the beautiful crab trees. Magnolias! 

This season is just upon us. I can't wait to soak up every last minute of it.

*I cant believe I used the word "delighted" but that's the best way to describe it. I felt Delighted!

Autumn.

Love this time of year.

Kane Country.

On Monday I went and visited my friend Karen and walked around her yard a bit to get some inspiration for my own. The varying colors, textures, heights and patterns were wonderful to soak in. Disappointed I didn't take a shot of the flowing rocky creek in the backyard. The property is beautiful and also peppered with interesting wood and iron sculptures.

On Sunday I plan to visit the nursery and have Jose over to estimate some planting. I am leaning toward putting in 3 evergreens and a colorful deciduous in the back left corner, and possibly some hydrangea for the back right. This will be the big push this year in addition to dragging out the railroad-tie border and then extending and reshaping it to create a more organic flow.

A Morning in the Garden, July 3.

Yellow Stonecrop (aka Sedum Kamtschaticum).

My wonderful Mother surprised me Friday with a sweet card and a check for "Flowers, etc." Every Spring, since I moved into my place almost four (!) years ago, we'd spend a weekend shopping for plants and flowers and working on the yard. But this year, there were some scheduling conflicts – she couldn't come – and then also the rain never let up. Basically, I never felt like picking up the slack on my own.

So then this weekend hit, and with some extra cash in my pocket, the sun shining bright but not absurdly hot, I felt ready to make some progress. Several flats of flowers, a new pot for the front stoop, bags of potting soil and mulch later, and I was sort of on a roll. I trimmed some bushes, sprayed for weeds, and tried my best to clean up the front yard. I also put flowers in pots in the back. I can't even begin to deal with weeding the backyard border – it's a jungle. But I did make some improvements.

I also discovered strawberries growing on the ground in my front yard? And more ant hills. And then I sat on the deck and surveyed my progress after I filled the bird feeder so I could watch them all come have some dinner. It was a nice day.

Anyway, while I was at the nursery, I walked around for a while. I need to remember that this is much more fun earlier in the season when there is much more to choose from! But I did come across this pretty ground cover. The color is my favorite. I didn't get any because I couldn't figure out where I'd put it, but I love it.

It's Green!

And growing! In my yard! Yahoo.

Happy New Year: The 2011 Version.

I've spent the last week or so thinking of goals for 2011. Thanks to sitting in seminars taught to me by Bob T. during age group swimming, I definitely recognize the importance of verbalizing, writing and visualizing goals in order to accomplish them. You may recognize some of these from previous lists, but I think 2011 has a lot going for it for seeing some of this stuff happen.

Ok, so here's a few things* I have been thinking about lately:

1. Rent a cottage on Geneva Lake for a week this summer. I miss it and love it and can't imagine how I'd feel to have a week off spent on the lake. Pure heaven.

2. SAVE some cash. I mean really. For once.

3. Remodel my bathroom. Also includes a week-long staycation so I can "help". I have folders of images saved but with ALL the options out there, it's so hard for me to make firm decisions. I have narrowed it down to black & white with green accents. I desperately want a tub I can take a bath in without freezing to death. And I want some intricate, small floor tiles.

4. Re-learn print-making. I definitely did this in art classes at school but I haven't done it since. I really enjoyed making those linoleum block prints. And I remember liking a lot the process of carving them, the way that material felt... And most? The smell! It may also facilitate my deep desire to put some paste ups around the city when I am feeling really adventurous and bold. (I'm dying to do this!) Watch the first artist Swoon in the documentary Our City Dreams.

5. New York! I missed NY in 2010 and it's just not acceptable not to get there once a year. Along these lines, I need to get to Philadelphia at some point. Both easy to do if I just plan a long weekend... But in direct conflict with goal #2.

6. The Gym. I'd like to break this goal into 1/4'ers. Like shoot for 3x/week January – March. I think it will help to have some things planned along the way, like signing up for the Shamrock Shuffle. I'd really like to get into a couple of yoga classes as well.

7. My yard. I basically spent a day or two on it at the beginning of this past summer and then just let it fall apart. I'd like to plant a tree. Then expand the border to make it more organic in shape. I'd like to create a green wall around my backyard that will eventually overflow with leaves for some privacy. I'd love to start the development of a really surprising hidden wonderland.

8. Field Trips. I am still dying, DYING to get a tour of that quarry in my neighborhood. In the winter running errands, I have the most amazing views of it through the empty trees and I don't know why, but I think it's SO COOL. I am also completely fascinated with the Illinois Brick operation I drive past on my way to work. I don't know what it is I find so soothing about the enormous piles of cement chunks-turned-to-cement rocks-turned-to-cement pebbles-to cement powder... And then when it all runs along conveyor belts and gets put onto train train cars or river barges... I am obsessed with watching the whole operation.

*This is a work in progress.

Image of a bathroom at The Soho Grand in NYC designed by William Sofield, 1996.

Autumn.

We had a beautiful fall here weather-wise but for some reason I just didn't ever get around to getting outside and snapping some shots. Saturday was a wet and grey day, but as I drove around on errands, I was thinking how beautiful everything looked. Reds and hot pinks and bright yellows seemed to be exploding on every front lawn. I even noticed it on my own.


So I thought, Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny. I'll take a bunch of pictures then. Literally overnight, all the leaves seemed fallen. It kind of made me laugh. But I am also bummed. It's over. These were the few left clinging on, keeping things pretty for hopefully one more day.

Favorites.

This is one of my favorite trees in the city. Isn't it great? The house behind it is also one of my favorites. I have to stop and look at it every time I pass by. See how it's wedged between new construction on both sides? Developers tried to buy up the whole block but this one person would not sell. There is – no joke – at most about 2 inches of space separating it from walls on either side. Walls that now block windows, on all stories, the full length of the house.

The tree basically blocks any light that might get in the windows out front. But what a beautiful tree! You can stand under it's canopy and peek in the windows and imagine what could possibly go on in there – what kind of character lives there. It looks like there could be a museum full of treasures inside. And a little old lady with terrific stories.


I also love love that it's August and there are still Christmas wreaths out front. Isn't that wonderful?

After the Rain.

I love the way the yard looks after a really good rain and man, did it pour last night. I especially love the color it makes the fence and deck, and how all the green looks really green next to them. I'd like to eventually stain them to look like this all the time. My yard is an overgrown mess right now, but I kind of like the look of it being unruly. I'm eating bread with cheese and apricot preserves for breakfast and am on my 3rd cup of coffee.





Earlier I ran my fingers up the stem of some rosemary and the scent is still on my hand. I'm going to go to the store after I paint for a little while and tonight I'm finally going to make that roast chicken with my own fresh herbs!

Lily.

These kinda showed up in my yard out of nowhere. I've never planted them, or seen them before, but there they are, spreading some beauty around among these pretty yellow ones that were, in fact, here when I moved in 3 years ago.

Greenhouse in My Car.

Got a bunch of flowers for the yard this past weekend. As I was loading up the car someone passing by said, What? You just drive around with a greenhouse in your car? I thought that was kind of a cute idea. What if you did?

Things happening in my yard right now.

Daffodils planted in the front yard? A bit of a disappointment. Of the 80 I put out 40/40 over the past two years, who knew that so many would come back without a blossom? I refuse to hate on them tho, because the ones that showed up were THIS PRETTY!

Backyard is another story and where I spent my time this weekend. (I think that thermometer in the direct sun was reading about 80º. It was really about 65º).

It's so Spring-y here this year. Everything is blooming and not getting destroyed by rain in the process. Like these little delicate blossoms...


And all this shaded green stuff... I swear someone is making up for last year. And it's happening so significantly in the past few weeks, I honestly feel we're making up for lost time. In my opinion, last year was such a drag weather-wise that we've practically already made up for it in nice days.

I feel like we are in for an incredible Spring/Summer season. Surely this tree outside my bedroom window is optomistic!

Things are growing!

Now that I have my own yard, I think I've developed a true love of Spring – previously for me a rather ho-hum season. Mostly because it always ticks me off that it takes so long for it to get HOT out once we see the forest thru the trees and a subtle end to winter.

Seeing these things growing helps me tremendously.

I definitely think it will still snow, and our temperatures in the 50s will suddenly plummet again below freezing. But signs like this give me hope. I LOVE that "new green" color. And when the dead branches on things in the back yard finally bud, after looking like it's impossible for them to do so for so long, my heart might swell and burst with joy.

For now, I can look forward to the day when, long before we hit 80º, the 80 daffodils in my front yard sway their golden heads in the breeze. Good times.