A cherry blossom snowfall...

The bulk of our cherry blossoms fell softly to the ground last weekend...

... resulting in a beautiful carpet of pale pink spread across the yard.

Days before, there was just a smattering of blossoms on the ground.

I love this rustic old bench that sits below the branches of the cherry tree. 

It was built by hubby many years ago.

There used to be an arbor over the bench, but our New England winters ravaged that years ago. The bench is still flanked, however, by the gnarly trunks & branches of the trumpet vine that once weaved their way through the lattice sides of the arbor.

(Here's a photo of our handsome Mr. O'Malley sitting on the bench back in March of 2000. 

What a wonderful dog he was.)

Many of the blossoms landed in the 'secret garden' birdbath during their descent.

I'm so happy I took photos while the tree was still in full bloom since the blossoms are now but a memory.

The following little videos were taken on May 11th, when it looked like it was raining cherry blossoms:

My prayers and thoughts are with the people of Oklahoma tonight. I've put a link to The American Red Cross at the top of my sidebar, and have also earmarked certain prints in my Etsy art shop as fundraiser prints for Oklahoma if anyone is interested (100% of the purchase price will be donated to the Red Cross).

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna

Vintage Mary Garden Statue under the Cherry Tree

While doing some yard work the other day, I took a few minutes to snap photos of my all time favorite thrift store find, purchased two years ago in New Hampshire...


A very old, chippy garden statue of Mary.


Mary watches over all the plants and wildlife that make their homes in our little backyard.


We just recently uncovered her (in her delicate state, she needs to be protected from the harsh New England winters). I didn't even realize she had a spiderweb attached to her until the sun hit it just right.

Mary resides under our cherry tree. I love the contrast of her old, chippy blue paint against the pale, soft pink of the cherry blossoms, which happen to be in bloom right now.

We have had incredibly high winds in our region today with trees down and scattered power outages. I'm so thankful that I took these photos a few days ago....

... because I'm afraid the wind may have made short work of these beautiful blossoms, and when I look out the window tomorrow they'll be gone with the wind!

Please visit Cindy at My Romantic Home for her Show & Tell blog post and a list of all those participating in it!

Donna

It's cherry and apple blossom time

... here in New England. It's in the low 50's and rainy today so many of the blossoms are now on the ground rather than on the tree...


(photo of flowering crab apple tree taken from my office window)

... so I'm glad I snapped the following photos over the weekend when most of the blossoms were still intact!


My beautiful vintage Mary statue survived the winter (although she may be a bit chippier than last summer).


She's currently residing under the flowering cherry tree, but I might move her to a different spot in the garden this summer.


You can see one of the hoppa crab trees in full bloom from the living room window.


I gave this guy a serious pruning last year so it would be easier to mow underneath. The branches used to pretty much touch the ground... I suspect several more branches could come off around the bottom, but I shudder at the thought of taking off too much because once they've been taken off, there's no putting them back... So I think I'll leave well enough alone and continue to be a conservative pruner!


From my office desk I look out on the other hoppa crab in our front yard. We didn't know if this poor guy would survive or not as we lost a good portion of the maple tree behind it during a devestating ice storm this past winter. When the large sections of maple tree broke off, they fell onto the crab tree, completely crushing it, but luckily the front portion of the tree survived...


You can see one of the sections where the maple tree snapped toward the top center/right of this photo. The other areas of the maple that snapped off are hidden behind the apple tree. From the street view the apple tree looks fine, but from the side and back, the entire tree is missing. We're grateful that we were left with this much though. These two crab trees were pretty much the first things we planted when we bought our house back in the early 80's, and they weren't much more than big twigs at that point! We brought them home from the garden center in the back seat of a convertible (with the top down), root balls plunked down in the back seat with plenty of room to spare, and look at them now!

The blossoms don't last long, but while they are in bloom they sure put on a beautiful show!



I'd also like to thank Mel from Country In the Town for listing me as one of her top 10 fav's in the "Makes My Heart Smile" award she received... You may all remember Mel from one of my past posts where she allowed me to share the lovely embroidered "envelope pillow" she created!! Please stop by and visit her... you'll be glad you did!!


Hope you are all enjoying the spring wherever you are!


Donna

The Garden Surprise...

One day last week I came home to a most curious sight. When I walked through the back gate, the yard was a carpet of pink blossoms...


I've been aware of all the courting, cooing, and wooing that's been going on around here as of late, so I must admit, I wasn't very surprised to see such a romantic setting.

There was a sea of flower petals in the bath....


...And I even caught this little fellow dropping petals, one by one, into another bath, but he stopped as soon as he spotted me...


There were even petals leading straight to the honeymoon cottage! (The newlyweds must love "It's a Wonderful Life" because this little place looks about as run down as the Bailey Honeymoon Cottage!)....


....although it did have its own private jacuzzi!


I turned around just in time to see her coming down the garden path... The bride was absolutely glowing!

(photo courtesy of Sugar Bush Squirrel)

And I ask you.. have you ever see a more handsome groom? So bright eyed and bushy tailed! And just look at the size of that ring he got for her!

(photo courtesy of photoshoppix)

I was able to watch as the bride and groom exchanged vows in front of the chapel window. There wasn't a dry eye in the house...

Now if they had only given me a bit of notice, I would have ordered this BEAUTIFUL butterfly and rose cake made by the very talented Joanne at My Little Cottage in the Making! It's just perfect for a garden wedding - and it's all my favorite colors!!!

Don't you just love spring weddings??

Donna

Update - Okay, my two daughters (ages 19 and 22) just read this blog post and the three of us are sitting here laughing hysterically, although they are laughing at me rather than my squirrel wedding post... They are convinced I'm walking a dangerously thin line between being hilarious and being just plain "nuts" (pun intended)! LOL And they may be right!!!