Another way to say commence...

My early years in Indiana left me with a few (charming) idiosyncrasies like my saying I'm going to warsh my hair (never did get that completely out of my system), my mother used to say she'd hot the pot when she went to warm up the coffee, and when I commence (my word of the week) to do something what I really say is I'm fixin' to start something!  So, right now European adventures aren't the only thing fixin' to commence around here!  For starters, the buds on my orchid are fixin' to bloom!  I am amazed.  I've never grown an orchid before and never, ever expected it to bloom again!

Spring has finally decided to do more than pay us occasional, coy visits and has consented to sit down and stay awhile.  It's not warm yet, it's not beautiful yet, but the perennials are coming up and the lilacs are trying to bloom and I had coffee on my deck yesterday morning before work.  That's good enough for me after surviving the winter.  Here's the view from my deck:

 

My peonies are up...

 

My delphiniums are growing...

 And this peony is really getting ambitious...it's budding!

 I am holding out hope my lilacs will soon look less anemic.

 My daylilies are growing a mile a minute, but what really excites me is....

My new garden arbor!  Doesn't it look great?!  I can't wait to see morning glories trailing up the sides!

Hmm....looking at these pictures from this weekend makes me realize I need to be fixin' to start weeding in earnest!  Have a wonderful day!

A Prayer in Spring

Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.