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It starts in early spring - pansies are my favorite. flowers. Two weeks ago it is  iris.  Purple with white, and white with purple, and my neighbor's gorgeous yellow.

And this week it's peonies.  Those huge blooms that faithfully come up every spring.

The peony bed beside my house has been there for many years.  I've lived here for seventeen years, so longer than that.  As far as landscaping goes, they were about the only thing planted.

And they thrive on neglect.  They don't care for much fertilizer and don't like to be moved.  Planting them close to the house keeps them out of the wind and they will be happy there.

Thanks to my daughter Sarah for weeding them last weekend.

Another

 

Another day, another eye surgery, now another post-op day.  I'm so  grateful for outpatient surgery.

This was the roughest, as these things go, but now comes the relaxing time.  No longer counting down the days. until surgery.  No more delays, no more pre op visits.

I had some double vision when the patch first came off but that's almost gone.  And, unlike last time, no black eye.

Now I can sit and plan my next set of goals, enjoy just looking at the garden.  

More

 More pictures from Bloom With a View at the North Carolina Arboretum.

This last one is a bronze statue of Frederick Law Olmsted, known as the father of American landscape architecture.  He designed many parks, including the Arboretum.

One of the little dogs just stood and stared at the statue, trying to puzzle out if the person was real.

Quilt Garden

This is the quilt garden at the Blooms with a View exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum.  

We spent a lovely early Saturday afternoon admiring all the wonderful exhibit flowers and checking out the trails.  The colors were amazing.  

Then we headed for Greenville, South Carolina, for a meet and greet with a few of the puppies from Small But Mighty Dog Rescue.  We met the foster for Bulter, one of Sarah and Winnie's dogs.  Shy Butler tolerated the event quite well, but Hatch was so happy to be there, getting lots of attention.

It was almost Derby time so we went looking for a bar/restaurant with tv's and we found the perfect one, where we could sit outside with the dogs but still watch the race.  My horse came in third - chosen because of his red hood.

Always, always, we wish we had more visiting time.

Mitered Corner

 

There is a back-up of comforters in my sewing space that need binding.  Yesterday I tackled one for the first time since before my December illness.

All went well until I went to turn over the sewn-down binding and realized that I'd done something wrong at the corners.  I've done mitered corners hundreds of times, have taught classes about how to do it, and done a handout (wish I'd kept one.)  And it was like I'd never even seen one.

Eventually I looked up someone's kind tutorial and figured it out.  But the experience was humbling.

I've cut out the binding for the next comforter - maybe if I do another one fairly quickly, and do it right, it will stick in my head.  Fingers crossed.