Looks like you love hydrangeas as much as I do! They really are perfect for a cottage garden. Frankly, they’re perfect anywhere. I have two hydrangea bushes in my gardens, not counting the new one. One is an Annabelle hydrangea and it has been a gorgeous workhorse in the garden for several years now. It blooms on old wood, so I really don’t have to do anything from year to year. It is in the garden bed that borders the far side of the porch.

The other one is a limelight hydrangea that I planted about two years ago. It’s in the same garden bed as my boxwoods. Such a lovely hydrangea it is! At the end of the season the blossoms turn a deep pink. I try to cut them at the moment when the pink is the most intense. I don’t have to prune it, which I love.

Both of them made it through the horrible winter beautifully and I’m so grateful for that.

And now I have my newest hydrangea! Bring ’em on! If I had the room, I’d have even more.

Speaking of winter and plants, I had to spend several hours yesterday cutting back dead and damaged canes from my rose bushes. They didn’t fare quite as well from the winter as the hydrangeas did. There is lots of new growth on all four bushes, but there was definitely damage done. Between the rose bushes and the brambles, my hands have been repeatedly pricked by thorns. Enough, already.

Thought you might want to see one of the paths in our woods. They’re getting overgrown due to all the rain, so we’re going to have to mow them very soon. Huge areas of the woods are covered in vinca right now, so there are lots of beautiful purple blooms everywhere.

You might have noticed a bench like this one in the photo of the path. For some reason unbeknownst to us, one of the previous owners of this property left behind a lot of cinder blocks. We find them everywhere, but there is one area in the woods where there are masses of them.

A cinder block Stonehenge.

We decided to recycle some of them by using the blocks to make some benches. There are three benches along the paths, in little clearings where we can stop, sit and listen to the sound of the birds all around us. Don suggested painting them, but I really want the benches to be a part of the landscape, as if they’ve always been there.

This old street sign sits in between the branches of a tree. That sign came from our old neighborhood in San Diego; in fact, we lived on that corner and when the signs were being replaced, we somehow ended up with this one. It’s a wonderful souvenir of our first home together, a place we lived in for six years.

My favorite little area in the woods is a little clearing we have named Catalpa Grove, for the three catalpa trees that encircle the clearing. As catalpas are always the last trees to leaf out, I’ll wait until that happens before I take a picture. It’s the place I seem to gravitate to; canopied by big old catalpas, with a cinder block bench on which to sit and think and meditate. I spent some time there the day my mother died.

I’ve started adding things to my galvanized planter, which lives on the Funky Patio.

And I must show you one more picture of the lilacs, which I know will be gone all too soon. They are really lovely this year due, I’m sure, to the cold, cold temperatures we had this winter. Lilacs like that sort of thing.

Oh my heavens, the scent of these beauties makes my head spin!

I see a bud developing on the poppy, some of the ground cover in the garden is flowering, the peonies shoots are getting taller, the wild honeysuckle is in full bloom – every day holds a new discovery.

A hike in on our agenda today. Since the rest of the week might be rainy, we’re going to take advantage of this beautiful weather.

(If you see a little ad nestled between lines of text for this post or any other post, I’m testing an ad for BlogHer – just to let you know!)

Happy Tuesday.