Growing!

I love Spring! I love the flowers, the promise of new life, little bitty plants in the garden--all of it! Here are some pictures from our spring this year.

Heading out to the garden!

Pointing out the watermelon seedlings :D

I promise he's not trying to look grown up! He's just proud of our green blueberries

Grandma Laura's roses are really something!

This gorgeous rose bush was cut down several times in the name of the hedge, but just kept coming back! This year is its most beautiful yet. We're going to find a way to keep it from getting chopped this year.

This bush has gotten so big! 

Cucumber

Zinnias--to attract pollinators! (don't worry, I'm going to thin them)

Carrots! (also going to be thinned)

Levi's trying to point out a developing pear.
We're finally going to get pears this year! (I planted the tree at least 4 years ago)

Can you smell this picture?!
Look closely for the photobomber.

Just precious.

He looks so worried!

Levi cleared out this area with just loppers and brute force!
Before, the area was impenetrable and you couldn't see the fence back there.

The thorns on these trees are vicious. It's called Callery pear and it's an invasive species.
These trees made up bulk of what Levi cleared out, along with a fair amount of privet.

This is similar to what the other area looked like before it was cleared out.

He likes to nibble on the clover

 I have to say, my garden is coming along nicely, but I love my crop of boys even better!

My Bucket List

Travel outside of the country to see something interesting (Machu Picchu? Mexican pyramids?)

Bike 20 miles at a time (or more!)

Go on a cruise

Become a temple worker

Get another college degree, possibly teach college

Find new information on Callie Nolan (ancestor)

See Providence Canyon; hike and take pictures!

Hike with kids in at least 5 different parks

See the Aurora Borealis

Vacation in Hawaii

Go to Yellowstone National Park and see Old Faithful

Visit Mesa Verde and tour the cliff dwellings

Just some pretty pictures

The apartment building that Austin and I live in now has some GORGEOUS landscaping. I had to take some pictures to gladden my soul (and to put in places where I'll see them, like my desktop, FB, and G+). I kinda wanted to show off as well, though, so what better place to do that than on my blog?

Azaleas were probably the flower I missed most while living in UT. These make me happy :)

Just trying to be artsy!

There are gardenias ALL OVER the place here, and BOY, do they smell good!  It's like yard-size air freshener. Mmmm!

Elephant ears. I thought this swirl looked neat.

I like the rainbow effect around the edges of the leaves

Japanese maple are so neat with all the colors in the leaves - I couldn't pass up this one!

Trees can have identical twins

Today I learned (TIL - I can never remember what the acronym means, so I'm reminding myself in writing) that a grove of aspens are ALL genetically identical! What. and Wow. The way it works is that they all sprout from the same root system, which spreads underground over time. So these trees aren't really damaged by forest fires, because they just come right back up in a younger and healthier version. Amazing, right?

Here's a great quote from the Wikipedia article on them:

"Lately, aspens have an increased popularity in forestry, mostly because of their fast growth rate and ability to regenerate from sprouts, making the reforestation after harvesting much cheaper, since no planting or sowing is required."

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Mountain Beauty

Austin and I went hiking on Saturday for a date. It was gorgeous, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I have been hankering after a good hike for ages.

I was surprised that I wasn't more out of breath, but after the initial "Whew! Austin, can we slow down?" I was fine. The trees are changing color, and they were breathtaking. I took a picture at what felt like every turn (but there were a lot more turns than I took pictures, so be glad I didn't actually take a picture at every turn!)

I love the rugged beauty shown in the above picture

Austin said he was making a face, but it's hard to tell. I love the yellow tree and the moss on the rock behind it.

I took this picture because there were some people ahead of us on the trail and Austin and I were waiting for them to pass. It helped that the tree was pretty, too.

I thought these trees were really interesting because their bark looks like a birch tree's, but these are evergreens. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Glorious!

This is the point on the trail where we decided to turn around. I wanted to keep going, but Austin had been bored and hungry for the last 10 minutes or so, so we decided to turn back.

I thought this outcropping of rock was especially neat.

Dry riverbed

Like I said, beauty.

Going down again

You can see Provo Lake there between the trees

I thought the way these trees were growing was really original of them, lol!

If you want to see bigger versions of the picture, just click on the one you want to see in greater detail, and it will give you an almost full-screen view of the lovely scenery.