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.