Checking out the signs of spring...

I took a quick look around the yard to see what needed attention. Darn. Everything needs attention. I need to clean up some awful weeds in the side and dog yards.

I took some photos and then took off to class to get a jump on some of my clay projects.

The iris have started to bloom in the yard. The wild winds of the past couple of days blew the first flowers apart, but more arrived to brighten things up.

This is a small-ish iris. It is one of about a dozen planted in an old wheelbarrow.

I shoved a number of leftover cuttings of my friends' figs into dirt in February. I tented them with plastic and kept them in the kitchen about a month. All the other cuttings I tried did not work. This is often my experience. If I follow directions to propagate some plant I get bupkis. If I shove the cuttings in dirt I seem to get results.

I will need to repot these guys soon. If I wait too long their roots will be impossible to untangle. [Yeah, like 10 plants per pot. It's crazy.]

 Some things are already almost bloomed-out. The redbud is putting on leaves and the blooms are quickly falling off. The snowflakes were halted mid-bloom by our freezing weather a few weeks ago. These snowflakes came with the house 25 years ago. I have moved them and shared them. They are still one of the first things to bloom. And they don't last long.

Redbud in foreground. Chaos of pots and such in the background.

Snowflake.

 A couple of grey-green plants grace the garden. I know why I have the hen and chicks. It is an easy succulent to grow and looks good all year round. I have often wondered about the other plant. I don't know the name. I don't know where I got it. Most of the year it just looks weird. What was I thinking?

Well, today I got my answer. It was blooming - lovely little purple blooms. AND the blooms had attracted a bumble bee. I do plant for the insects and birds and I suppose that is the point of the no-named plant. [It is so easy to grow and propagate - another thing I can just break off and shove in a pot of dirt.]

During the drought something ate the leaves of this guy for moisture. It is better now, though scarred. It will be blooming this year too. I will keep an eye on it.

Most of the year this is not much to look at.

But the blooms are sweet and the bees love it.

As I headed off to the rest of the day I had two more stops.

A few weeks ago I noticed a new tree at an unnamed location that was strangling. It had been braced against the wind while it established its root system, but the bracing had not been adjusted as the tree grew. It needed to be rescued. I consulted with a local plant super hero who promised to resolve the issue. I checked and discovered the tree had been released.

Why would someone pay a fortune for a tree and then choke it to death?

It looks bad. Time will tell.

 Then I walked over to another tree that housed a nest from last year. It looks a bit like a mourning dove nest. I would have expected a dove to nest higher - out of reach. I will be watching to see if anyone returns to the nest this year.

It is a work of art.

How beautifully made.

That's it...just odds and ends and no dogs.