RJ Corman Dinner Train

Clyde and I got a surprise last weekend and rode the RJ Corman Dinner Train with Tricia and David.  They were celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary.  We had, briefly, looked into it last Valentine's Day but it was booked and not something our group wanted to do at that time.  The train ride was smooth, nice interior, classy but casual, and the meal was very good.  Here are some pics.

In looking back at these pics, they aren't so good!  Looking out a window, in a moving train, with a phone camera....need I say more?

I do want to say that marriage these days, like the one David & Tricia have, are rare.  They are truly ones to be celebrated.  We were so honored to share a meal with them and raise our glasses to "cheer" them on to enjoy many more happy, healthy years.

Sunny Day Flowers

This morning is a sunny day, so I got out in the yard to pick off Japanese beetles (ugh) and deadhead the lilies.  So I snapped a few pics.  The post before this one is more photos and journaling but they were taken on a very rainy day.

This last lily, if you look in the very center, has a Japanese Beetle.  He thought he got away!  

My Little Acre

Most everything is in bloom around the yard, so today while it stopped raining for the moment, I walked around and took these photos.  My yard is lived in and not anything special....except to me.  I love my neighbor's front yard that was professionally landscaped last year.  It is amazing.  I love my next door neighbor's that added a beautiful water feature and new pavers & landscaped last year....even more beautiful.  Mine is a work in progress from the time we moved in.  I add anything I find that I like or anything someone may have passed on to me.  There is always a place for it.

Small area here filled with hostas and a nice hydrangea.  

The water lilies are doing well this year.  So far blooming all white.

Sedum and sea oats, one that holds it's shape and the other that takes over.

White cone flowers on this side and pink on the other.
Zinnias in the middle.

This shade garden takes care of itself.  It wraps around a pink dogwood.
The three pictures here are of the same space.  Mostly hostas, some unruly daylilies,
and a white astilbie you see in the shot below.

This is a peony bed that is nice in early spring.  Mostly all green now.
The butterfly bush was huge last year, Clyde cut it WAY back, and only a couple
of volunteer limbs are coming up now.  A BSF friend
passed on a start of a moon flower up front, beside the tomato plant.
This bed sits out from the house and is mostly on it's own!

I don't have many but I sure like daylilies.  So perfectly shaped
and the colors vary so beautifully!   

A pot outside the patio of colorful impatients.

This space had a concrete round table (with the bench shown above)
which was never used.  We moved the table to the backyard,
bought three new benches and tried to "dress up" this
little space.  

Continued....I didn't want to do a lot here and I liked
other's Fairy gardens, so I added a few here.  Nothing like
what I've seen, but a start.

Most of the plants here in this space outside my patio door (fairy garden)
are transplants from around the yard.

I use a lot of impatients from the front yard
to fill pots and shady spaces around the yard.

More daylilies from Grahams Daylilies in Lancaster.  These two colors are blooming now.  

This is our newest "bed" if you could call it that!
The evergreen tree was damaged by ice and Clyde cut
off many low branches.  Leaving a large space looking
lonely.  We moved the wooden bench there, added
a new (to the right) oak leaf hydrangea, and divided
the big hostas that our neighbor gave us from his side
of this tree.  He planted three pampas type of grass on
his side to hide the electrical boxes.

 A couple of pics of the blackberry bushes.  They were "bit" last year and had no blooms.  This year they are doing better, so we'll see!

Front yard, in front of bedroom window, blue hydrangea.  Doing OK
but not a lot of blooms yet!

I wanted to post this so I will always remember
the volunteer impatients that come back year
after year.  Even after replacing the bushes a couple
of years ago, they found their way back.  I am
very thankful for them.  They fill out a lot of spaces with color. Here between the fern and Cherry Laurels.  

Don't have the exact name of this one.  We planted it two years
ago and it's doing well.  Fully blooming now.

These are Stella d' Ores that my friend, Michelle, gave me.  Hardy, easy to grow
maintenance free. The plants growing in front of them, reseed and
grow from year to year.  They "pop up" everywhere the wind blows their seeds.
Some call them "Cat's Whiskers", they are called Cleome.  They normally are
much taller, but they may just be too thick.  Or they still may get there, as they
are in full bloom by July 4th, and they look like fireworks to me.