From this window - May 5, 2013...

I've been trying to get ready for a craft show on the 18th.  I spend most of the day in my craft room, on my computer or looking out the window - but not getting anything done.  The window beckons...  In just the last week the crab apple has gone from deep rose pink buds to pale pink blossoms.  Dandelions have miraculously appeared across the street, their cheerful nodding heads moving with the wind.  The birdhouse right outside the window has had plenty of applicants but no takers so far.  The house sparrows, bluebirds, wrens, chickadees and titmice have all had a look inside but it remains empty.  I think a family of nesting birds gives a birdhouse a soul.  Until then, it's just a structure.

It's rained here a lot but today the sky is that soft pale blue that I can never find in a marker.  The clouds are white and fluffy, the wind is soft and warm.  I've seen no deer, turkeys or foxes in weeks, perhaps they've all moved out of the neighborhood.    The birds sing at dawn now and through the morning hours.  A male wren has taken up residence in the birdhouse on the gazebo.  He may already have a mate because I've seen two of them.  The water lily leaves are on the surface of the pond now.  Carl saw a hummingbird on the deck yesterday so I put the feeder out this morning but I haven't seen any at the feeder.

We have plans for the gardens this year.  There are some bushes in our front yard that have outlived their attractiveness so we're going to have them removed and replaced with a wildflower garden.  We're going to have a raised bed built in the backyard and some of the flowers from the bed next to the pines moved into it and revert the bed by the pines to grass because the pines are taking it over.  We are moving a lot of the plants from the pond area to the front yard and ones that are already in the front yard to pond area.  There is a method to my madness.  While I love a wildflower look, the plants around the pond have taken it over.  We built the pond to be a focal point but it just looks overgrown.  The plants in the front yard are mostly daylilies and autumn joy sedum, both clumping plants.  I have five peonies, eight large daylilies and a dozen sedums.  After planting those around the pond we will mulch it really good.  With plants that clump, we can weed - and walk.  Hopefully, we'll get all this work done by early June so we don't have to transplant in the heat of the summer.   And in case you're worried I might strain myself, we've hired a young man to work and I'm just exercising my pointing finger.