Blooming time of year

I owe a big thank you to the previous owners of this house for planting flowering perennials that I can enjoy as I try to identify them.  I'd say they had a penchant for pink though, because the majority of blooming things so far have been pink.  Still, I love growing and blooming things, and so far I've got that in spades at this new house.  

Here's another picture of the swallowtail from last week.   He was so nicely cooperative.

Besides the pot of blooming pink azaleas out there, one of my rose bushes is blooming with the biggest pink blossoms I've ever seen on a rose.  These flowers are huge, probably larger than my outspread hand, and really gorgeous.  My rose bush in the front of the house is blooming deep red.  Those roses are gorgeous also, but not as huge as the pink roses in the back.  They're all long stem roses though.

I also have a plant that's blooming with big orange blossoms that I think is an amaryllis.  It's so great to see them all.  I can't wait to see what comes up next.  I also have a lot of mint growing out there, which I'm told I need to start thinning out because it will take over everything. 

I have two big trips coming up in the not too distant future.  One starts next Saturday and is back to back business trips - one in San Diego and the next in Savannah.  I'll be spending 5 days in San Diego then crossing the country to spend 3 days in Savannah.  It's a longer stretch than I like to be out on business trips, but it just worked out that way.

The second trip is at the end of May and it's a vacation trip to Japan.  My friend and I have been talking about doing it for 10 years, and suddenly realized that our timing might not ever again coincide as well as it does at the end of May.  So we're going.  It should be a blast.  

Luckily I have a good pet sitter who will watch the girls while I'm traveling.  Today I'm trying to plan wardrobe for the business trips.  It's so much easier packing for a vacation trip then planning and packing for business trips where I have to be professional. 

Actually, I might want to get used to an increased amount of travel.  I'm running for President-elect of the national organization I'm involved with, and if I win the election, I'd be President in 2015.  That year the organization would ask me to commit 30-40% of my time to them, mostly as travel, to represent the organization nationally and internationally.  That will be a LOT of travel.  The election's not until September, so I won't know until early October if I won or not.   So I'm not going to think about it until then.

I have a new Internet provider!  I finally got tired of fighting with the Internet connection provided by Time Warner.  It was so unstable, it dropped the connection randomly, including during transactions, and sometimes it wouldn't connect at all.  They came out the the house multiple times, and two different service reps told me the signal to my house was just barely good enough to carry the Internet connection, etc.  So when AT&T came to my door, I jumped at the chance to change.  So far I haven't regretted it.  Connection works every time and hasn't yet dropped anything I've been working on.  That makes me really happy.   I don't do well when I don't have an Internet connection.

Guess I'd better get back to wardrobe planning.  Later.  

Blackbirds and Butterflies

I really like Spring.  I love it when things turn green again and leaf out, instead of the dull, dead tree and shrub look. And I love blooming things, even if I don't always know what they are.

This lovely fellow flitted around my Indian Hawthorne in my back yard and was cooperative enough to let me take several shots with my new camera before he flew away.  Isn't he gorgeous?  

I just got back this morning from another trip, this one to Washington DC.  It was a nice, uneventful trip, and since I'm back to full health, it wasn't a bad trip.  I got to see the cherry blossoms along the Potomac, although not close up.  They're in full bloom right now, but due to the meetings, I only got to see them from something of a distance on the cab ride in.  Still, I did get a feel for how beautiful they are, and how many there are!  Amazing!  

I laid down in the recliner about 12:30 this afternoon and woke up at 3:30 with both cats napping on me.  I guess I was tired from the trip.  

My bird feeder continues to be a big hit with the birds in the area. Here's my red-wing blackbird friend.  I've seen the female too but haven't gotten a good shot of her yet.  When I got home this morning the feeder was completely empty, which is amazing considering I filled it Wednesday.  I have a small flock of sparrows and a small flock of cowbirds, besides the other random species, so it's being decimated pretty quickly.  

I'm really happy to have a lawn growing again and things blooming, but once again I have blooming things that I'm trying to figure out what they are.   I have the Indian Hawthorne of course, mostly pink ones, but I have at least one small white one.  I also have a tall plant of Queen Anne's Lace growing out there and beginning to bloom and a pot of what I think are pink azaleas.  That's this lower picture.   I'm really glad to have the new camera too, so I can take pictures of all these plants and birds and butterflies.  And of course pictures of the cat-kids, but I'm giving you a break today from cat-kid pictures.  


So that's about all that's going on.  I'm in a great mood because it's warm, pretty and gorgeous outside ad I can have the house opened up while I do chores.  It's supposed to be in the 80s the next several days so again I'll be switching between heat and AC.  What can you do?  I try not to use AC, but I hate being hot.  Maybe the ceiling fans will be enough.

Later.