I can smell my old backyard...

Lilacs are my favorite flower. I can't get enough of how good they smell. In the house I grew up in, we had huge lilac bushes along our side fence. When they would bloom, the scent was just phenomenal! I swear I would wake up in the morning and be able to smell them from the bathroom upstairs!

In our yard we have two lilac bushes. It seems like it has taken them forever to bloom. I don't know if that is due to a cold Spring or what. I always thought that early May was pretty much the season for lilacs. The Japanese lilac (I think that is what it is called) STILL has not bloomed. Both bushes have sort of a chalky white spotted residue on their trunks? stems? whatever you call the "wood" part of bushes. BRANCHES? I hope they don't have some kind of disease. They are finally getting to be a good size.

I love lily-of-the-valley too! Before my Mom moved from our old house, I dug up some from the backyard and planted them on the side of our garage. I think I only took ten or so. Since then, they have multiplied like crazy and a good portion of the side is covered with them. That makes me so happy!

I remember in a shady area over where we kept the garbage cans we used to have a ground cover that would bloom with purple leaves. With all the shade we have in our yard, I wish I would have taken some of those as well. I think it was called myrtle. Something like that.

I love these pictures of Spencer and Hailey. They were outside with me while I was shooting the flower pictures. Hailey just looks so ready to take on anything. I love her little toes peeking out. And Spencer, my brown eyed heart breaker, picked that little piece of lilac just for me. I imagine that girls are going to start calling for him any day now!

I almost forgot about the forsythia. That was the other huge flowering plant in our yard. In early spring my Mom would go out and cut branches and make gorgeous bouquets. I wish I had more sun in my yard so I could plant a forsythia bush as well.



I loved our old backyard. You always knew when spring had arrived.