Flowers on Friday

It's Friday! Since this is the first spring we've been in our new house, I didn't know what to expect in the garden. Each day has brought wonderful new surprises: a sea of dense lily-of the-valley (above), blankets of sweet woodruff (below left). I wish I could bottle the smell of these two together. They are two of my favorite  scents and humid, 80-degree days have created a heady warm blast of weighty sweetness and damp each time I walk out the door. Needless to say, I keep walking out the door and wandering in a lap around the house just to smell deeply.

The boy gave me a lilac—one of my favorites—for my birthday last summer (above right), and then I happily discovered a fairly large one with deep violet buds getting ready to pop in the next week or so in another part of the yard. It happens to be right next to another large bush, that I realized today is bridal veil spirea. It's like a shadowy, shady wonderland here — I couldn't be happier with spring.

Happy weekend! I hope you find time for some flowers. I'm off to Cincinnati for Crafty Supermarket and good times!