After earning a five year Architecture degree and then working another five years while taking six very difficult licensing tests, my eldest is now a licensed architect. I am so proud of her and so happy for her. We celebrated last weekend with a backyard party.
Here’s some of the food and a sign with Lauren’s letters.
More food and my nephew, Collin, my brother, Dave, and my sister Margaret.
Lauren and her boyfriend, Colin, are walking past the Herb Garden on their way to the Party Garden.
Here’s a view of the food tent as shot from the Party Garden.
This is my son, Patrick, and his girlfriend, Lexie.
These are my brothers-in-law, Spike and Daniel. They made the sushi, which was amazing.
This is Michael and me behind Lauren and Colin making a toast. There were tears.
This is the sound system. Michael is a recording engineer, so we always have a killer sound system. Don’t tell anyone, but, at one point, I grabbed that mic and started singing along to Miley Cyrus.
It was chilly, so we started the bonfire early.
Here’s my mom at the bonfire. This party came at the end of a wild month of work for me and I was horribly unprepared. Mom stepped up and made it all happen, and it was a great success. By the way, her admirer is my dad, her ex-husband.
Here’s Riley. She loves a backyard party, but I think she got too many treats from everyone.
This was Riley all the next day.
First to arrive were the Johnny Jump Ups. That’s what I have always called them, but I’d like confirmation. When I look them up I’m not sure. Are they Violets? Violas?
This stunner is getting everyone’s attention this year. I think it is phlox.
I call these Star of David. I’m sure they have another name. They look white in the photo, but are a pale purple. (I am realizing that my “knowledge” of my plants is mostly lure passed down. I actually have no idea what is going on out there.)
My youngest daughter helped me by weeding and planting pansies. If you can think of a better way to spend the day than gardening with your daughter, you’ll have to tell me about it. Loving this spring!
This picture was taken on Grandma’s farm in Fawn Grove, PA. This is where the tiger lilies came from. My mom took some (as she is wont to do) and made them a part of her yard. When I moved here 22 years ago, she shared, as she is also wont to do.
They are tall; many of them are well over my 5 feet 7 inches.
I’ve planted them everywhere.
I want to have plenty to share with my children. And grandchildren . . .
They are still little, as you can tell by this photo by a coneflower. (Gee, Riley, how did that lovely coneflower get trampled on to the ground?)
About a week after the bunnies left the nest I got up at 5:30, which is earlier than usual. I saw an adult rabbit and a baby together. They were grazing near the herb garden and when the adult hopped into the herb garden the baby immediately followed. I like to think it was the mom hanging around with her kids.
I’m not seeing them as much; I think they are making their way to greener pastures. It’s been an interesting experience, but with a bunny-hunting dog in the family, I won’t be happy if I find another nest.
I put this marking over the nest, so I can tell tomorrow if mom has been by. I’m really hoping she has, because I don’t want to be faced with a nest full of hungry babies.
As a plant, it’s easy. It always grows; I’ve never had one die on me. It forgives me if I don’t pick it at just the right moment. It keeps growing all summer, and it’s pretty. 
It’s simple to prepare. I rinse the leaves off, pile them up, slice them lengthwise 3 or 4 times, then chop it up.
I saute it in olive oil and water with onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (because red pepper flakes are good with everything). It’s tasty just like that. But I make a ton of it and keep it in the fridge to do this:
Some of the Columbines are over 4 feet tall. Sigh. I remember when Columbine was just a flower.
Aren’t they pretty?
The bed by the front porch looks to have a promising year.
The bed by the driveway looks pretty good, as well.
The raised bed herb garden has some winter survivors as well as popsicle sticks promising good things to come.
And here, my dears, is what my beloved party garden looks like on this very day. A sad, sad remnant of our glorious fall season together, as witnessed below.
But, happily, my 
Love Spring.
Despite heroic measures on my part, I was unable to overcome the effects of gravity; the plants kept falling out of the frame. So I gave up.
I wanted to try free motion quilting, but I knew I wouldn’t be very good at it. I did it on the back side of my daughters bolsters – the side that goes against the back of the couch – so no one sees it.
BEFORE – Here’s a little seating arrangement under a cherry tree. After years of cleaning up petals, pits, and poop (the birds LOVE those cherries), I took out the seats.
AFTER – I used the pavers to make a little wall, filled the area with soil and made a cute little garden instead. Now all of the cherry tree debris just disappears.
jodie richelle 