A very, very sweet Summer Solstice!

Our grand nephews come to visit for the day, with their great grandmother, my mom! It is a precious day with precious little souls! What FUN!!!!! PLAYING IN THE SPRINKLERS & GARDENING!!

"We sure are having fun gardening today, aren't we Gigi!?"

Ash, Wind, Pests!

Such a crazy gardening year we are having! The ash from the eastern Arizona wild fire (over 600 square miles burned!!!) heads our way every evening, on the wind. Oh, yes, and there's the wind! Windiest spring in New Mexico's recorded history, they say! And, oh! The pests! Some cute (but destructive) and some not so cute (and destructive!). A spider mite infestation in the whole state you say??? Okaaaay. Miller moths, which translate into...cutworms. Ugh! And then, there's the matter of no rain; not in the past several months, and none "in the for-seeable future". I failed to mention our late freeze, which took most of our apples and peaches!

But we are gardeners! We plug away, ever optimistic!! And by gosh, for dinner last night we had home grown lettuce and gorgeous French breakfast radishes! Snap peas too (the Cascadia sugar snap peas are so good!) And the upside is, the roses have never been prettier, the sweet peas are fragrant and perfuse, and the hollyhocks are glorious!

The Commander built this Japanese-inspired garden entry for us! Projects like this sure do take longer than one might expect! But it is worth the time and $$. We had fun doing it!

Finally, we have a special spot to hang the pretty Japanese lantern we bought in Morioka! We will think of our years in Japan every time we see this little lantern!

This is the wildest colored petunia I have ever seen! I love it!

This guy and his friends really enjoy chowing down at Little Bird Farm! I tell them the grass and the orchard are fair game; the gardens, however, not so much! Please!

A favorite quiet spot for day's end.

And now, "Itty Bitty Bird" is 1 year old!

So confusing...cards and gifts! And a coconut tart too - very, very sweet!

We just laugh and laugh with our sweet little marigold blossom, Piper!

These curls in the back are simply precious!

Easter in North Carolina.....

........a beautiful day with our NC kids and nice friends; sweet little Piper Gaye's very first Easter!

My little Cherry Blossom

Last night I asked Abby, "Are you Grandma Gigi's little Cherry Blossom"? She smiled up at me brightly and said, "Yes! I AM!". Be still my heart.
(Abby and her Mama made a quick visit to New Mexico this week, so we were delighted to spend some unexpected time with them!)