This Perfectly Imperfect Life

🎉 And good morning & happy Saturday! #goodmorning #happysaturday #nofilter #gardenwalk #morningritual #morningmotivation #inmygardentoday #apartmentgarden #springgarden #maygarden #rosechat #simplepleasuresgreatestjoy #myperfectlyimperfectview #thisperfectlyimperfectlife 

With Azaleas like this, who needs filters?! 😍 Good morn & happy Thursday from me & my garden 💚   #nofilter #springtime #morning #gardenwalk 💚 #morningmotivation #azaleas #azaleas #inmygardentoday #apartmentgarden #springgarden #maygarden #spring #may #pink #myperfectlyimperfectview #thisperfectlyimperfectlife 

A sample of what's blooming here at the Portable Homestead for the week ending 4/30/15.  The first photo, of the ranunculus, I took at the nursery on Monday and just had to share it! With colors like that, who needs filters?! 

A sample of blooms for the week ending Thursday, 4/23/15. It has been a crazy week weather wise, from Summer warmth to flooding rain and thunderstorms to frost and freeze watches and warnings! Most everything seems to be doing alright, although, whatever was iffy before this crazy weather week (like my 2 Julia Child floribunda roses!) may be done for, despite 2 strait nights of covering them for protection against a freeze. But, we'll see. The Weeping Cherries have been putting on such a show this year, I cannot get enough! Photos upon photos, of course! What's blooming in your garden this week?

Forsythia, bush, perennial. Pansies, annual. English Daisies, perennial. Potting up perennials on the front porch, English Daisies (left), Violas (right). More English Daisy shots, back patio, perennial. Pansy, annual. Violas, perennial. Week Ending 4/16/15. What's blooming in your garden this week?

Yesterday I welcomed " The Sunny Knockout® Rose " (Rosa 'RADsunny'), a Star® Roses and Plants rose, into my garden. As I do with all new additions, I spent much of the day entranced with & fawning over this beautiful yellow rose! And believe it or not, this is my first ever solid yellow rose! So, without further a due, introducing Sunny: Yellow always was, and still is, a very favorite color of mine. Since I was a little girl. It's an extremely comforting color to me (although I don't have a clue why). As y'all know, I've been heartbroken over losing more than half of my roses these last few years (including four after this most recent Winter) and I have been on the look-out for this particular rose for some time now. But I wasn't expecting to see roses or find this one at the time I did. This was the only yellow Knockout amid a sea of (very pretty) pink & red yesterday morning and it stood out to me like ...

This morning while on the treadmill... I was looking out at the raised bed around the Dogwood and caught sight of something very exciting! The Crocuses are coming! The Crocuses are coming!  What a sight for sore eyes, I tell you. Finally! :-)

#GardenWalk is kicking off Spring with a new Featured Tweeter post! Join me  here .

We've been in a thaw since Tuesday with temps in the 40s through Thursday and temps in the 50s since Friday! It's been wonderful having the windows open daily and going out without being layered up to the nines. So much of the snow has melted, enough I was able to putter around the yard this morning (in only a t-shirt and yoga pants!) and clean up some of the mess Winter has left behind so far.  In doing so, I found the first signs of Spring here at The Portable Homestead! The Snow Drops were a pleasant surprise for sure. These photos make this officially the first #GardenWalk of 2014! Very exciting and refreshing. This thaw has been such a welcome break. Cold and likely snow return this week. Have you come upon any signs of Spring where you are?

The post below is from my Adventures In Gardening column archives and originally appeared elsewhere on January 19, 2013. While it has a gardening theme, it is also about falling in love for the first time, although in a perhaps unconventional sense, and it seems fitting to revisit it with Valentines Day arriving a week from today. It is also one of my favorite posts that I have ever written! I've had a follow-up of sorts in the works, which covers my first brief visit to Charleston in 2012 overall. My longing to return to Charleston arrives every February and March now. One day I will get there. Until then I have my memories and my Camellias. Adventures In Gardening: Love Struck! Filed under  #GARDENWALK ,  ADVENTURES IN GARDENING As gardeners, we fall in love over and over again.  Every time we flip through a catalog, make a trip to the nursery, or take a walk in a new garden.  Often, many of these new loves get pushed out of our minds and onto the “...