February Birth Flower

 



It's hard to believe the month of February is almost coming to an end. Man has it been a chilly one. This week I think we broke some records for the coldest day in February. It has been a really chilly one in our small town. The temperatures hovered mainly around -28 degrees Celsius, but with the wind-chill it felt like -42 for most of the week. The one good thing is the sun has been shinning which has been warming up the house nicely throughout the day and the snow has taken a break from falling.

With these extremely cold temperatures it's hard not to think about the warm summer months that lay ahead. Seeing as today is the last Monday in February I thought it would be a great day to share some photos of the February Birth Flower.

 

 

This weeks garden post is brought to you by the Iris. These ruffally beauties have taken their sweet time to start blooming in my flower beds (I think it took 3 years).  About two years ago they finally started to bloom and boy are they beautiful. 

 I love that they attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

 

 

But most importantly I love that I can cut them and bring them inside to enjoy throughout the day. It's one of those little things in life that we are able to enjoy during the month of June that we long to do during cold winters like the one we are experiencing this year. 

 

 

I guess in the winter we have to enjoy other little things in life, like cuddling with the Lil Man while he is still willing to cuddle with me. As I know this simple little thing will probably come to an end sooner than I want/ expect and how I know I will miss it. But for now I shall enjoy it. 

 

Have a great Monday!

 

Related to the Lily Family

A few facts about this herb (a must in our herb planter) ...

 

 

 

It's ...

• related to the Lily family
• high in vitamin C, potassium and folic acid
• known to promote good digestion, ease stomach upset
• and supposedly prevents bad breath 

We love them on our baked potatoes in the summer, clearly not the flowers but the stalks ... CHIVES! The flowers, however,  sure have a pretty purple bloom ... don't you think?

Hope you had a lovely valentine's day! To Everyone who lives in Ontario, have a wonderful Family Day!

Perennial Geraniums

Today's post is brought to you by ...




A little research on these pink beauties was required. I knew they were part of the perennial geranium family but had no idea what they were actually called. Oma has them in her garden and shared some with me. I am horrible at remember flower names. After a quick little search I discovered these are  Cranesbill Geranium (aka Bloody Geranium).

Cranesbill Geranium (aka Bloody Geranium)

These pretty pink geraniums start blooming towards the end of May in my flower beds and last till beginning to middle of July. These deep pink beauties seem to really love our clay soil. I love the texture the leaves add to the garden!

I have decided to include some of my favourite quotes that I often find inspiring to some of my photos. Hope today's quote inspires you this week! Thanks for visiting. Have a lovely day!

Spring is on it's way...

That's what I keep telling myself. I don't know about you but I find this time of year hard to get through. The temperatures outside are -25 or colder with the windchill, the sun barely makes a presence and everything is a blaaa white colour or looks lifeless. On top of all of this I'm another year older. Don't get me wrong, the fluffy white stuff is pretty after a light fluffy sparkly snowfall like we had two weeks ago, but that only happens a few times throughout the winter season.  Most of the time the wind just howls like crazy and blows the white stuff everywhere and makes it nasty to drive in ... oh the joys of Canadian winters in Ontario.

 

Here we are ... it's the beginning of February ... the middle of winter. Let's face it no matter what the groundhog predicts today,  we have at least another two months of this to go.  I thought this would be a wonderful time to sneak in some photos of the flowers I welcome back each year in my flower beds. I intended to do this last winter but the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months and I just never had an opportunity to get around to doing it. The other day when I was picking up the Lil' Man from Preschool the birds were singing such a lovely tune and it truly felt like spring was around the corner and it somehow dawned on me that I had to start working on these posts.  Most of the photos were taken during the spring/ summer and fall of 2013 as last year the weather wasn't the greatest in our area and the flowers didn't do so well. My goal (keeping my fingers crossed I succeed) is to post a photo of the different flowers from our flower beds each week until the nice weather arrives. A little glimpse of the beauty that lies ahead.

The first flowers to pop up will be these beauties and I seriously can't wait...

Our Tulips!

  I saw the above quote this past week and it's so true.

 

 

I wish I could have fresh cut flowers in this mason jar throughout the entire year.

What are the first flowers to bloom in your flower beds?

 

The boys away, quick do some work!

So I was able to get the bench some what installed and half wired up. Still need to hook up to the panel and I got 20amp service to the 3 plugs. The little heating setup worked good, was able to work without a jacket no problem.

Hope to finish off the side bench/shelfs next weekend, and have the power hooked up.

Another Year Older

January is coming to an end and the sun is starting to shine for a lot longer when it does decide to come out. BOY is it ever welcomed!!  This girl is another year older and boy was I spoiled this year not only with an abundance of love and best wishes,  but with lots of lovely gifts. My awesome hubby ordered in Chinese so I didn't have to make dinner two days in a row. I received one of the things I miss most about the warmer seasons ...  beautiful colourful flowers!

 

Over the past couple years I have discovered that I really enjoy orchids and they enjoy being in my presence as they will often bloom for me the majority of the year. Oma & Opa gave me these two beauties.

 

My Dad always gets me fresh flowers for my birthday. Usually it's a bouquet of roses and I always tell him the bouquets of mixed flowers always last longer but he usually ignores me. This year surprisingly he listened. If you look close though there's a couple roses in there. I'm loving my 1 Gallon mason jar Hubby gave me at Christmas!!

My Sister surprised me with this adorable and fun birthday cake that she made all on her own.



It was delicious!

 

I am truly surrounded by such wonderful and amazing people!!

 

 

Enjoying the Little Things

Back in November we acquired this fancy coffee machine.

 

Isn't she a beauty? One problem though she was almost lifeless and on her way out the door... she was getting tired and not really working properly until Mr. Fix it (Hubby) came to the rescue. The frother had stopped working properly a while back and other issues were starting to pop up.   It belonged to Oma & Opa. They had already sent it away to be fixed once and just didn't want to invest any more money into it. We were informed Opa was devastated when it stopped working properly.  He loved this coffee machine like no other. Once they replaced it with a new one,  they asked Hubby if he wanted it to have a look at and possibly fix it when he had a chance.

We are so happy Hubby said yes. It has brought with it some simple enjoyments and treasured memories.  He literally took it all apart and gave it a good cleaning with the help of The Lil man just before Christmas ...

... and just like that we have been enjoying some fancy dancy coffee...  with frothed milk!

YES FROTHED milk!! Oma said, not even the factory repair people were able to fix the frother like Hubby did. I'm so proud of him!   It's been wonderful!!  The Lil Man now loves helping Dad make the coffee. We only have "special coffee" when Hubby is home on the weekends as we don't want to take away from it's specialness. {We may just have to buy one for ourselves when this one calls it quits for good as we are really enjoying it}.

 

We figured the fix would only last a couple days because it sounded really bad every time the machine started up, so we have been enjoying at least 2 cups of coffee per day. Much to our surprise,  here we are at the end of January and we are still enjoying this amazing coffee machine.  Surprisingly the machine is not as loud at start up.  It will be interesting to see how long it runs.

Shortly after the machine was fixed, we discover Mr. H likes the frothed milk.  So we put a little (milk only ... no coffee ... he has enough energy in him)  in a little toy mug and he was so happy.

He has since upgraded to a porcelain mug which actually belonged to Hubby when he was younger. He just loves it.

We kind of take our coffee breaks seriously around here. A milk mustache is a must! It's been wonderful enjoying a simple thing such as a cup of coffee with my boys.