I’m back from a lovely 10 days spent at my mom’s place just outside Las Vegas.

The weather was nearly perfect with temps in the 70’s to low 80’s, along with brilliant sunshine every. single. day.  Do the locals ever get tired of that unrelenting sun?  You gotta wonder.  Personally I appreciate the occasional rainy day for some contrast.

However, I loved being able to enjoy my coffee on the patio every morning while listening to the birds singing.  Unfortunately here in Minnesota we’re still having morning temps in the 30’s and 40’s, which is just a bit too brisk for coffee on the deck.

I also really enjoyed the walking trail near my mom’s house.  While most of the trail isn’t very green, there are some nice mountains off in the distance (and if you were to turn around and face the other direction you might catch some glimpses of the Vegas strip off in the distance).

But then there is my favorite section of the trail which someone has nicknamed Trail Heaven.

It has some lovely dappled shade.

I did do some painting while at my mom’s, the door into her garage was well overdue for a touch up.  I purchased some Sherwin Williams “door and trim” paint from Lowes, and as I started using it I quickly realized how much nicer it is to work with Dixie Belle paint.  The Sherwin Williams paint was rather thick, and if you brushed back over it at all it would drag back off.  I ended up having to let the first coat dry, then had to sand it down again and start over.  What a mess.

In hindsight, I wish I had brought some Dixie Belle paint with me like I did when I painted her front door.

I painted that in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Green Silk Paint back in March 2022 and it still looks great.

I also did some gardening … of a sort.  I raked the matted pine needles out of the rock bed that runs alongside the sidewalk next to the fence.

I pulled out five grocery bags of pine needles!

But I’m back home now, and first of all I want to thank all of you who left comments on my re-run posts while I was gone.  My mom doesn’t have wi-fi, and I’m practically incapable of typing comment responses on my teeny tiny phone.  But I did read all of your comments, so thank you so much if you left one.

Now, onward.  It’s starting to feel like spring in Minnesota.  The muscari is blooming …

as is the white bleeding heart …

and the brunnera.

But as is always the case, I did suffer some losses over the winter.  It looks like my favorite lungwort is not coming back this year.  Here it was in 2023 …

But it was significantly diminished in size last summer, and now I don’t see any sign of it coming up at all.  Bummer.  Looks like I’m gonna need to do some plant shopping 😉

That being said, I didn’t suffer nearly as much damage this year as I did last year when the the frost line was deeper than any year since 2019.  Thank goodness.

I always find it difficult to imagine that the garden that looks like this right now …

is going to look like this in just a few weeks.

I’m feeling very impatient and ready for it to warm up a bit more, and for things to grow!

I also have some fun makeover projects underway and hope to be sharing some of those with you soon, so be sure to stay tuned!