Monday, May 11, 2015

Ah, Spring in Rockies

Spring came in much like a meek lion way back in March. Now joined by her sibling May, she rages. Today's Monday Mosaic speaks the reality of our last week, ending in snow yesterday. There is a reason why here in Zone 5 we are warned not to plant tender shoots before Mother's Day, the date that we can still have killing freezes. While we had about 4 inches of snow when we woke in the morning, by the time we returned home church it all melted.

Still the ravages of a week of rain continue along the Front Range as families along those rivers that flooded so disastrously Fall 2013 fear a repeat of the water disaster. The wet, heavy snow also causes a lot tree damage with broken branches and limbs. But this is Colorado in the spring and as Colorado natives we understand and take it all in stride. Once the weather settles down, the weeds will pop and we will return to the garden.




Happy Mother's Day

We are truly blessed with two lovely daughters who grew up to become such lovely young women and mothers, too. As daughters, they are kind, generous, and loving. Heather, the arborist and horticulturist is a woman of words. As her Mother's Day gift, she wrote a wonderful tribute to me on Face Book, actually making me wonder just which mother she was writing about. Jennifer, on the other hand, worked for Hewlett Packard for 15 years, now a stay at home mom, she creates. For her gift, she made a lovely quilted table topper in my favorite colors. Along with the quilt piece, she gave me this beautiful Lefton vintage pitcher filled with gorgeous pink flowers. 



Rain, Rain go away. Come back another day.

I love rainy days, although I think we were all beginning to feel like we were living in Seattle with the steady rain all week. We do need the moisture and I certainly do not wish rain to go away because here in Northern Colorado we know that once the May rains do leave, it will be many months before we see significant moisture again. Certainly the rains have made the landscape all shiny, green, and clean. 


While the peonies suffered frost last night, I think they will be okay and will be luscious pink in a few more days.


Rain drops on wood. 


The little female gold finch takes a breakfast of black thistle seed.


Really a pretty typical spring scene in Colorado. Most perennial plants are hardy enough to survive the snow.




Miss Kim this morning looking cold and wilted from last night's freeze. She will recover when the sun warms her.





Out the bathroom window, the holy hock forest looks rather sickly this morning; their leaves glistening with a thin layer of icy frost. They, too, will survive to bloom.


It is supposed to warm up this week along with afternoon thunderstorms. Hopefully we can get out in the garden to get the vegetables planted. We have a few projects to work on outside. When the weather is crummy, I will be working inside doing some spring cleaning. With the help of my house keeper, we scrubbed nearly every inch of kitchen last week, including all the foo-foo things that I have on the walls and shelves. While the counter top installation was pretty easy, it did create a layer of fine dust and dirt on everything. The house keeper will be vacationing in Hawaii on her next scheduled visit, so I will be on own until she returns. Oh it is not that I cannot do housework, I just prefer not to. I got spoiled while I worked having help keeping the deep cleaning up. 

I wish you a grand week. Thanks for stopping by and Welcome to the new members of my little group. I am pleased to be meeting new ladies through Mosaic Monday and a new Face Book group that I have joined at the invitation of Jen formerly of Muddy Boot Dreams blog, now of her new blog The Light Laughed. Ann's Dollhouse Dreams is gaining a bit of speed. I don't work so hard at it, posting when I have finished  a project. I have promised myself and me couple of followers to spend more time over there. I'll be updating it later today. Until next time, drop by Lavender Cottage for more awesome Monday Mosaics. 

PS: An revised addition: If you have nothing else better to do, please check out Ann's Dollhouse Dreams.  I have just updated it. Very slowly it is gaining some faithful readers. I love you. 

16 comments:

  1. Hi Ann, What lovely gifts from both your daughters. I know you treasure them. Hard to imagine snow this time of year (here in Georgia). I hope everything will be fine, especially those peony blooms! Have a lovely day.

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  2. I am glad that your snow melted quickly, at least!

    Had a laugh about which mom she was writing about on FB :)

    I like to quilt and I like those colors in the runner! :)

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  3. I love the rain photos - some of my favorites. Such beautiful details. We had a glorious weekend - highs around 76, which is perfect for the Pacific Northwest. Seattle even got up to 84 - not sure why they have warmer temperatures in Seattle (90 miles south of us) or why they have more rain and snow than we do, but that is ok with me - I'll take 76 over 84 any day (we are cool weather fans). And they certainly can have the extra snow and rain we get plenty.

    I'm glad your pretty flowers will survive the cold and snow - can't wait to see the garden in the summer.

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  4. Ann, I'm so glad that you have joined in the Over 40 Blogging group...it's a wonderful collection of bloggers, yes I think there are a few guys in there too.

    And thanks so much for mentioning my blogs...there seems to be a lot of confusion despite all of the redirects, and I am still finding old blogging friends out there that can't find my blog.

    Jen

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  5. Happy belated Mother's Day! We could use some of that rain here, it has been dry lately..The weather is just crazy with the ups and down temps. Pretty mosaics and images. Have a happy day and week ahead!

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  6. Snow in May, it is hardly to believe. Lovely pictures of the goldfinch and the raindrops! We had some rain last week but not enough, it is too dry for this growing season.
    Wish you a wonderful week in house and garden!

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  7. happiest of Mothers Day to you! My cousin SD had a lot of snow!

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  8. Just when you're getting excited about the garden coming to life, more snow and then a rain to beat it all down! Good thing you are a woman of patience - you are, aren't you? :-)
    Very nice gifts from your daughter for MD and I saw some exceptional words written to mothers on FB over the weekend. I looked for your link to FB, not here?
    I didn't realize Jen had started another blog, I'll have to have a visit.
    Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday Ann.

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  9. Oh we have many a Mother's Day with snow but not this year...we are getting the hot weather with no rain until today....crazy how the weather is all turned around....wishing you a Happy Mother's Day and some warm dry weather.

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  10. It is hard to imagine having snow in May - it must come as a shock to the plants but you seem positive that they will all recover. We are having the showers that we should have had in May - one day sunshine - one day rain, like this morning. But the garden is loving it and everything is very lush.
    Your Mothers Day gifts are lovely - it is nice to know you are appreciated isn't it.

    Lucky you having a housekeeper - I could do with one sometimes. Enjoy the rest of the week my friend.

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  11. That should have read - we are having the showers that we should have had in April (not May)!

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  12. Oh no, not snow. I'm glad it melted right away. I hope your mothers day was very nice, judging by the gifts I would say it was :) We are supposed to get down in the 30's tonight so we plan to cover some things, just in case.

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  13. Hi Ann, Happy Belated Mother's Day to you!! I just LOVE the table topper your daughter made and the vintage pitcher filled with flowers is gorgeous! What a wonderful gift from your daughter. I know your other daughter has helped you with landscaping at the garden spot, as I remember reading some posts about that. You have certainly done well as a mom and have two special daughters to show for it. My mom commented on my Mother's Day post on Facebook that being a mother is one of God's most precious blessings. I couldn't agree more.

    I can't believe you had snow on Mother's Day, but I'm glad it didn't linger long. We had rain in the morning, but the sun came out later in the day. Like you, we need to be glad for the rain we get here, because we tend to have hot, dry summers. We also have the same rule in our part of N.C. about not planting before mid-May. We had to turn our heat back on near the end of April and kept it on for about a week.

    I really appreciate your visit yesterday. You asked about Duncan, and I will just say that he is improving (in very small steps) but he's still a handful. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that we got the Alpha dog of the litter, and as such, he is quite "assertive" and strong-willed. Finding, and keeping, a groomer is not going to be easy. He is handsome, though, and cute as a button and is starting to be more affectionate.

    I hope you have a great week, Ann!!

    Hugs to you,

    Denise

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  14. It's hard not to get excited about planting in the Spring. When I lived in Northern NM....years ago...we had a frost on July 4th! That was crazy! I'm off to look at the dollhouse progress! Sweet hugs, Diane

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  15. We have no snow, by May we still have some frost up in Yorkshire but thankfully no snow. Happy Mothers day (if a bit belated) xxx

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  16. And I thought that WE had some variety in our weather here in PA / thanks for straightening me out :)

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