22 Days Ago

April 17-18 (Thanks to Picasa to remember the date for me) were beautiful days here. We spent a lot of time outside. Our favorite place to go this spring is Brucemore. It is an historical mansion and acreage about a block from our house. We love to walk over, walk through the gardens, sit by the pond and feed the ducks. We walk over at least 3 times a week. During the day, it is just Lulu and I. In the evening (and during weekends) we let Lee and Petunia come with us.Sorry if you get sick of Brucemore pictures in the coming months.

On this particular beautiful day, the tree across the pond from us was at the pinnacle of beauty. I love the blossoms and how they reflect in the water. As hard as I tried, I could not get Lulu to stand still so I could get her in the picture too.

These are our ducky friends.

Lulu's new favorite things are the white chairs. She loves to sit.stand in both of them. For this shot, she coerced her dad and Petunia to sit with her.

I must have been into nature shots...this are our crabapple and apple trees in the backyard. When we moved into the house (it was at the end of August), the crabapple tree was mostly leafless and kind of sickly-looking. We were about to cut it down, Lee had a saw to the trunk, and then we decided to wait a year to see if it was better in the spring. It was. Now I love it; my favorite part is the smell.

Another tree (this time in the front yard) that is beautiful in April and ugly in August. I also wanted to cut this one down.

We tore out 13 dead/dying bushes along the back fence and planted 9 lilac bushes. In about 30 years they will be a huge wall.

Lee's project for the spring/summer: scrape, prime and paint the garage. Our garage was built in 1915. It needs a lot of love. This is Lee showing off the first 4 feet he completed. Check back with us in September and see if he actually finished the whole garage.