Thor's Favorite Rhododendron

We have a number of Rhododendron's growing in our yard -- but this is Thor's favorite. In fact, he thinks it might be the best rhode he's ever seen.

Poppies!

There are two mature poppy plants down in our parkstrip - one on either side of the pear tree. One has a lovely, delicate pink blossom and the other is a brilliant, fiery orange! I didn't catch a picture of the pink flowers as they were emerging, but I love the way the sliver of color barely pokes through the pod for the first day or so.
I have other poppies that I planted this spring -- but so far not much action there. The Himalayan poppies I planted in my raised bed are sprouting, but they are a LONG way from producing blooms I think. I sowed some California poppy seeds next to our driveway -- and so far those haven't done anything - it's just an ugly patch of bare dirt. I'm skeptical as to whether or not anything is going to happen -- I kind of want to just plant over the spot with something new since nothing is sprouting. It has been over 2 months!!!

Iris in our yard

As far as I can tell we have about six different types of Iris opening up and blooming in our yard at this time. I don't know anything about varieties of Iris -- so I am not sure what they are -- but my favorite is definitely the maroon colored iris with yellow accents.

Pink Hedgehog & Wee Green Hat

My wonderful friend from Alaska, Joanna Caselli, had a beautiful baby girl, Sofia, back in April (the 23rd....maybe?). I knit this hedgehog and little green hat for Sofia. You can read Joanna's very sporadic postings on new motherhood on her blog: casadacaselli

Ralph's Great House Slideshow

When Ralph came to visit us back in mid-January he gave us the best present by taking pictures of our house and putting them into a web-album on Picasa. Here's the link to the slideshow where you can see our house as it was when we first moved in: http://picasaweb.google.com/ralph.tingey/ThorAndSarahSNewHouse

The Cherry Tree

This is a shot of the cherry tree in the back of our yard. The blossoms were really perfect right at the end of April and the first week of May. By now they have all fallen off and the tree is looking a little barren. We're not sure what variety the tree is -- but we're pretty confident it's not going to produce any fruit.

In the beginning...

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures BEFORE I removed all the grass & weeds from the raised bed in the back. The plant in the middle of the bed was there when we moved in. My favorite part of this view is the trash stuffed between our fence & our neighbor's garage. Very scenic. I took these pictures March 13, 2008 -- about 3 months after we'd moved into our house.