Snowdrops are blooming

This is it...spring is emerging from my dog ravaged garden.


Meet Finn....

This cinnamon colored lab is my constant garden companion during the warm months. In the winter he is on his own. I lock myself inside and focus on learning the art of painting botanical watercolors. At the ripe old age of fiftly, I have become a winter weenie...

Enclosed by an electric fence bordering my half acre wood, Finn stays home, safe from his crazy puppy behavior, while the neighbors dogs are still allowed in for play dates.

It is a wonder, that the pack, consisting of the Cinnamon Lab, the Golden Retriver and the ever spunky Cockapoo have not squashed EVERYTHING!

But Look...

So far all clumps of Galanthis novllis are intact.

I planted them last spring and fall. Some are from my friend Carols garden, that originally came from a plant rescue operation at a construction site over a decade ago.

I love the way they clump and naturalize in woodland areas.

They originally came from a neighbor, a holocaost survior from Holland. She brought the bulbs to Virginia from her home in the old country. By the time Carol & I rescued them from a neighbors new driveway they had become large drifts of white delight in the mostly dismal mountain landscape in April. We dug huge clumps and wrapped them in burlap diapers. Her garden is now massed with them. I tend to move often, Carol doesn't. She keeps the mothers of all my collections in her garden, so that I can get the originals for my latest home.

I have now transported them to North Carolina, blooming in late February now. I live in a wooded area, it looks as though they are enjoying thier new home. I am grateful to have moved south, spring is clearly on it's way. Virginia is still experiencing ice storms.

My Heronswood Helleborus is in Bloom....So, I painted it.
I have left it sitting in a pot all winter. Still waiting for inspiration on it's permanant home.

It also had to survive the winter construction project.

The new garden shed.

It is waiting to be painted as the weather settles. My Son in Law built it during Christmas, while I cooked and played with his little daughter.....my honeydoodle......and her Mother, my beloved youngest daughter.

I already have the Cinnamon Ferns planted in the area in front. I think it will need a window box.

Soon I will be able to get to these things. After all, the snowdrops are blooming already.

After a quiet painterly winter, that did produce some worthy plant studies, I look forward to working up a sweat, growing some food and creating beautiful gardens everywhere I am called.