Tuesday garden pictures

 New flowers are popping up here. Methinks that our previous owners had a penchant for purple.

Though, perhaps, it's just that flowers that grow well in the shade tend to be purple. I don't know.

These are all in the back yard, aka, the nature preserve.

A little pink for variety's sake.

This is the path lined with the plethora of pretty, purple plants. We never sit on this bench. It seems so far away. Maybe with some cushions and a mosquito net...

This is in the front butterfly garden. I wonder what it will be.

I came upon this stray Christmas ornament while taking pictures.  Pepper has apparently been raiding the storage closet. Bad dog.

And Anna has discovered the wonders of glue gunning. I set up this craft table for her birthday, and she's requested that is stay up for now, so it's the first thing you see when you come in the door. I bought most of the materials at a garage sale several weeks ago.

So, if you're in the area and want to stick tulle and flower petals together with a snazzy hot glue gun, come on over.

These Days

The white bleeding hearts. Pink ones appeared out back a couple days later.

It's been a long wait until Spring, but it has fully arrived. And our yard is a delight. I can't name much of what's coming up, and all I've done to contribute to the process was to clear some leaves out of the flower beds. Definitely a case of reaping what I didn't sow.

Lots of lovely tulips. Most are yellow, but there's a lone red one in the back.

So the wait for Spring is over, but I'm in another holding pattern as we're waiting for results of special education testing for Anna. The meeting with school personnel is in two weeks. Anna is actually enjoying the testing process, which is a big change as we both cried during and/or after previous episodes of testing in France with both the occupational therapist and the neuropsychologist. Testing during school hours with someone she trusts is so much better and likely a much more reliable measure.

She said that she did some math testing today--that it was fun and hard. Two words that don't generally go together in Anna's world.

I spent some time today re-researching sensory processing disorder online and managed to freak myself out. Some people find help in restricting dairy and gluten. I'm having enough trouble these days juggling our schedules and dietary preferences--the thought of going dairy and gluten free sent me into a near tizzy of wondering what Anna would possibly manage to eat within those confines...

And purple flowers

But then, I took a deep breath and closed my browser windows of kid-friendly dairy/gluten free meals, and decided to wait. We'll get results. We'll find out what resources are available through the school. We will think. We'll pray. We'll plan. We'll decide on priorities--a nutritionist? Occupational therapy? Tutoring over the Summer?

And we'll enjoy this beautiful place full of flowers that we didn't plant and maybe add a few of our own.