The Clematis

 As predicted, the clematis has gone crazy.  You can't see it, but there are flowers all the way down to the ground.  The temps have been very warm the past week and all the buds flowered at once as  you can see.  Our perennial hibiscus went from little nubs above the ground to foot high plants also in a period of about three days -- they are incredible.

This is a closeup of the clematis. We are going to add an additional plant of a different color for future years!

I absolutely have always loved iris perhaps more than any of the other spring flowers.  Growing up, we had at least a 100 different varieties in our yard that my parents had planted when they first moved there -- they were all different colors and came out over a period of a few weeks as some were later than others.  These are in our neighbor's yard and looked particularly nice with the backdrop of the pink columbine and another yellow flower.


I have spent my last week trying to go through fabrics, patterns and books to get ready for our "garage sale" event at quilt club.  I am determined to get at least the upstairs rooms in reasonable order and slimmed down before heading south again.  The basement stash may have to wait a bit longer -- we shall see!   I have managed to get 3 boxes of fat quarters and another three boxes of yardage accumulated and ready to go.    So I have bravely resisted starting the next quilts -- maybe after quilt club.  Of course, a perfect accompaniment for these cleaning activities are Colin Firth movies that I have seen already (so I don't have to pay close attention)  -- many are even better on repeated viewings like Easy Virtue which is an old Noel Coward play.