Stop being a pansy!

Actually, wait, don't.  I like pansies!

I may have gotten a bit carried away when I went to Lowe's the other day - I loaded up on pansies, and finally, yesterday, I got them all planted in various containers.

This is the view looking out the front door.  

And looking back up the other way - you can see that we need to power-wash our slate steps!

These are the front steps leading to the sunroom, seldom used.  Previously, there were hugely overgrown rhododendrons to the right of the stairs, and other rampantly wild bushes on the left.  Gone!  We're working on figuring out lovelies to tuck on either side of the stairs.  I'm considering Little Lamb hydrangeas.

Image from http://www.plantplaces.com.

You can probably see that I'm working on prepping the railings for their new paint job.  I can hardly wait to get the railings done - they're going to coordinate with the landscape lighting that I dressed up.

I used these lights from Lowe's, along with a little Martha Stewart craft paint (in Rust), to make something more custom-looking.

 They look fantastic lit-up at night!

Before we had all the bushes removed, the front porch was blocked by an overgrown arborvitae and shaggy yew bushes.  The porch looks so much more lovely without them!  (And note, there are more railings to be cleaned, sanded and repainted... I've got my work cut out for me!)

Have you been doing any spring planting?  Are you lucky enough to live further south than I do, and have all your planting complete?

Cheers!
Mrs. H.

Clawing my way back up for air

Whew!  It's been a rocky ride, and I've been terribly absent, but I'm happy to say that the Handyverger kitty with cancer is in remission!   Turns out chemo for cats isn't nearly as rough as chemo for people.  Thank goodness.  We couldn't have put Sir Lancelot through that.  We're so happy, and although we don't know how long it will last, we're thrilled he's still with us - and he's absolutely thriving.

I mean, really - lookit that face!

That being said, I've been able accomplish a lot around the house and in the yard.  The biggest thing we've accomplished is paying someone else to rip out the overgrown, terribly dated shrubs in our front yard.  It's amazing how much bigger our little ranch house looks!  We need to figure out what we're replacing them with, but since it's safer to start planting after the first week of May, here in New England, we're working on it.

In the meanwhile, I found some pansies and gave them a new home, and I added some landscape lighting.  I chose solar lights for ease of installation, but I made some customizations to fancy them up. Pictures to follow!