Up and At 'Em!

The weather here has been so beautiful it has been a gift to be outside and enjoy the sunshine.

The doctor approved me for mild exercise starting Friday [walking, 2 lb arm weights, more stairs - nothing too amazing] and it feels so, so good to be mobile.  Spottie is becoming quite spoiled from all the long walks we are taking.

With the neighborhood awash in color of the blooming trees and flowers we decided to spruce up the front of our home too.  We don't have a front yard, per se, but a small plot [3 x 5] at the foot of  our steps and a long strip on each side of the driveway [1 x 14] that gets absolutely no sun light.

It is a challenge to give color to these small spaces, but I think Pooldad, Wallene and I managed it. Especially Wallene. She is a dynamo.

We weeded [gah! There were a lot of weeds here - the only thing that grows here], put down landscaping fabric [take that weeds!] and mulched with red nugget mulch.   We have a red brick home so it matches nicely.
This is the right side by our stairs. So clean and fancy!:

 And the left side [those are our neighbor's stairs]:

At the bottom of the steps we weeded again and Wallene planted all these beautiful petunias and placed all the rocks around.  She took the rocks from the creek bed down the hill from our home.  Industrious kiddo - free rocks. We also mulched with shredded hardwood.  The stick in the middle is our Charlie Brown tree, but it hasn't bloomed yet so I chopped it off in the pic.  To the right of our stairs is our neighbor's driveway and his strip of landscaping, but he isn't home much so he just leaves it as is.  I would've loved to extend our flowers out, but that is his property and he wasn't home to ask.  He is a really nice guy so I am sure he won't mind when I see him.

 Up close shot - the flowers are purple, yellow and lavender which are Squirrel's school colors. She'll be so surprised. :)

I am pretty sure the flowers will grow and spread out more - that is IF we can keep them alive.  We are not gardeners by anyone's imagination but I am hoping that Wallene got a green thumb from her namesake and great grandmother.  Fingers crossed. :D

After lying in bed all winter it is so fabulous to get outside and do something.  I am quite sore now and although that doesn't look like a huge amount of work, for me?  It was. I am seriously out of shape.  I know I am going to be achy, achy tomorrow but it was worth every minute of it.  It is hard not to take granted everything we have, and we do have so much to be thankful for, but sometimes it takes something as simple as planting flowers with the family  to make us realize just how much we do have.  I don't look too far into the future right now, instead choosing to concentrate on the here and the now.  If time is shorter than I expected at least I will have a smile on my face and in my heart because of the pretty darn nice life I have lived.

I should be asleep right now because tomorrow I am painting the front door! Woohoo.  At least I can do part of that sitting down. :wink:
 
Have a wonderful Sunday Tadpoles. We'll see ya' on the flipside.