We Have Leaves! And Other Issues

 

The leaf buds on the Full Moon Maple have been swelling for a long time, but they finally burst forth with green leaves and little dangly red flowers. 

In the back yard the red leafed Japanese Maple has opened it's bright red leaves. Slowly it will go green too.

Primroses and some of the tulips are blooming.

In the front yard, under the maple tree, trilliums are blooming.

One has already gone Purple. 

This one Lutea, blooms yellow. I haven't seen our red one yet.

We have been busy since we got back from Whidbey Island. Tom has got the lawn mowed and fertilized, and I have edged the whole thing. Yesterday we raked and picked up cones and twigs from the driveway. 

We emptied out one of the bedrooms so repair work can be done. That meant putting away all of my sewing fabrics and equipment. We took the sewing machine to the shop for long over due servicing. We took donations to Goodwill.

The repair work to be done is water damage in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A month or so ago, when we had that heavy wet snow, we had limbs come down on the house. We discovered several days later that one of them punched a hole in the roof. Then snow melt and rain leaked in.

Since then we rented a dehumidifier to dry things out, contacted PEMCO insurance and filed a claim, had Little Joe's  Tree Service remove hanging limbs from the tree, and Valentine Roofing has patched the roof. We selected a contractor to fix the water damage inside and that process starts tomorrow with asbestos abatement.

This morning we got all of the laundry and house work done and Tom took the car in to have a tire checked and now we have a whole new set of tires from Les Schwab. Hey, it's only money.

We have a $1000 deductible on our homeowners insurance, and the rest will be covered. The first payment from PEMCO in already in the bank.

My last sewing project for a while. I used fabric that my friend Alyson gave me to make quilt squares, which I made into a table runner.  Then I made four placemats to match. I gave them to Irene for her birthday. She loved them. 

That's all, folks. More than enough??

Tulip Time In The Skagit Valley

 We worked hard in our Whidbey Island garden on Wednesday, getting the weeding done. We were tired and sore. But Thursday morning we ventured on. We packed up and headed north up-island to the Skagit Valley. There we stopped for a visit at Christianson's Nursery.

The sun was shining and Mt Baker was glowing in the distance.

Then we went on to Roozengaarde and their wonderful display gardens. 

It was lunch time, and there were swarms of people so we waited in line for our hotdogs and chips. Everyone was in a good mood and we shared tables with friendly people. In the display gardens everyone was taking photos so I worked to get a few without too many other tulip admirers in the frame. 

Here we go, with very little commentary. 

Still lots more tulips to bloom in the rest of April.

Many of the  fancy daffodils were still in bloom. 

Glowing in a sunbeam.

We were both tired by now so we didn't venture out into the fields with the rows and rows of different colored  tulips. We briefly checked out the gift shops, but by then we were done navigating in crowds. 

It was time to be on our way. As we worked our way south in the valley we saw a flock pf snow geese still hanging out before going north. We stopped at the Fir Island Wildlife Reserve briefly, where I took this photo. It was quiet, peaceful, and uncrowded there, a great way to say farewell to the Skagit Valley.

And now we are home.