return of the fiddleheads

Today was all about being outside , playing, soaking up a beautiful spring day
...and seeing if the fiddleheads had popped up!  

One of the things I love about our yard is that it is 4 acres of varying landscape.  We have  a large wonderful open area in the front yard, which is perfect for kick ball games, for football and for soccer.....your all purpose athletic field.   There is my mother's perennial garden which is a labor of love and in it's 2nd season so I expect it to really be beautiful this year.

The back of the yard is partially woods and the other area leads to a stream in the back of the property.   Near the stream it is the time of year for one of my favorite things to be blooming....

the fiddleheads!!!

Now, I know that I have  thing with fiddleheads and tend to humanize them, but that is just because they are so incredibly symbolic of our life.   

Their unfurling form, how they grow and change, sometimes alone and other times surrounded by other fiddleheads.  They truly are so special to me. I just love them and how they represent growth and change.

to add to my love of the flora and fauna of our yard....

these sprouts...

and then these mushrooms.   Recognize our family?   (again humanizing!)

so happy to witness the fiddleheads and their friends return for another season of growth and change.

my "mother's garden"

This spring has been especially exciting for the gardener in me.   That is because last fall I labored for many hours (likely worsening my back pain) in creating an expanded garden next to our driveway and shed.  This garden has been in my mind for a few years.  I split many of my own perennials and was lucky to have inherited many others from friends' gardens.   However, I needed help from a landscaper to create the path I designed the flowers and plants around.  This path went in super fast in the last couple weeks and has completed the garden!  I love love love it.

This is the view from my art studio window.  You can see how the garden's path has divided into 4 sections.   This was a happy thing that just happened.  I didn't purposely divide the garden into 4 sections with the path, but as I was walking along the path I realized that it makes the perfect "mother's garden" for me!   Each section of the garden is named after one of our  4 children.   If they give me a plant as a gift or if we purchase a perennial together we can plant it in "their" section, they can help care for it and watch it grow and change.

The kids are each standing in "their" gardens.

Oh, I love the path....it just gives this large garden exactly what it needed!  Defining the space while welcoming you into it to enjoy.   

i heart my garden.....don't you just love this heart shaped stone?!