Look What We Have!

Even though the rain won't really stop in this area for a few more months, I'm definitely excited that spring is just around the corner!  Since we don't typically get super cold temperatures in this part of the country (although we did get snow 3 or 4 times this winter!), one big benefit to living here is that our flowers start to bloom a bit earlier than other places!  As I've been taking Satchel on his daily walks, I've really enjoyed noticing the little differences in the plants, bushes, and trees around the neighborhood.  As Satchel stopped to sniff at one of his favorite bushes this afternoon, I noticed that it has tiny little leaves on it that weren't there yesterday!  Our neighbor's plum trees are also starting to blossom, and even our own maple tree is starting to get little buds (or maybe they're huge buds...who knows...they're nowhere near the ground, so it's hard to say).

I took a couple pictures of the flowers that are starting to bloom in our own yard.  This is a flowering bush we have in our front yard.  It's a type of Japanese Pieris.

Since I took that picture on Saturday, the rest of the flowers have popped and it looks really pretty!

We also have a group of flowers growing near our garage.  Honestly, I'm not sure if they're tulips or crocuses.  The leaves look like tulips, and the petals are a bit too long for crocuses, but they're low to the ground like crocuses, and the shape of the petals are more like crocuses.  I was telling my dad about them, and we wonder if they're a hybrid....each flower is a tucus (pronounced "tookus").  It made us laugh.  We're odd.  Anyways...I took this first photo on Saturday:

And then I took this photo early this evening:

I should've taken the pic earlier today; around lunch time, I noticed that the petals were more open.  Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.  If you notice the leaves poking up behind these flowers, those are our irises popping up!

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on the flowers and try taking more pictures soon.  We have day lilies popping up in the front flower bed, and Shawn and I noticed that our columbines are coming back!  Those sprouts are super tiny right now, but they're there!  It's nice to have a little Colorado in Washington.  :)

We Need Rakes

I'm sure the fact that it's the middle of October hasn't escaped your attention. And unless you live somewhere with absolutely no deciduous trees, you probably know that we are very close to that time of year when the leaves decide they've had enough, and they all come tumbling down. Since both Shawn and I have been renters for quite some time, we don't really own anything for taking care of a lawn...that's what landlords are for. But of course, we no longer have a landlord. It's all up to us now to take care of these "minor details."

Yeah...something tells me that raking the leaves isn't going to be such a "minor" detail for us. Do you remember this picture I posted a month or two ago? It shows a very small part of the very large tree we have in our backyard.

Although both Shawn and I really like this tree (okay, I'll admit it...Shawn likes it way more than I do), a very large tree comes with some very large leaves. Like this one.

Now, you should keep in mind that this is actually a fairly small leaf for this tree. This was just the biggest one I could find that had already fallen to the ground. Many of the ones still attached (and especially the ones much higher up) are easily double the size of this leaf. And there are lots of them! Maybe you can kinda see it better in this picture.

So that explains part of what we're up against. Have I mentioned (or have you just noticed it for yourself by now) that this is some kind of a maple tree? Maple trees have "helicopters." At least, that's what we called them when we were kids, because as they drop from the tree, they spin around and look like helicopters. You know...these things:
Well, our very large maple tree with its very large leaves also has very large helicopters. Again, that was one of the smaller ones. And not only are these helicopters rather large....there are thousands of them!! All those brown things in this picture are helicopters, and again, this is just a very small section of the tree, near the bottom.

Like I said, this is a pretty awesome tree. It's a formidable thing to have growing in our backyard, and it will provide plenty of shade for us in those warm summer months. But I have to say...I am NOT looking forward to cleaning up after it in the fall!! Maybe we'll get lucky and all those leaves and helicopters will just blow right over our house and into our neighbors' yards. A girl can dream, right? :-)