Flower Beds!

This is a shot of the flowers in front of our front not-quite-a-porch. LOL The first rose bush is just about to bloom it's first blooming of the summer, you can see the buds on it.

The Azalea bush has bloomed already and I'm sure it will bloom again before summer is done. I should cut it back a bit, maybe. Will have to look it up and make sure.

The tall, skinny stick with leaves is another rose bush >?<. Don't know if it is going to do anything this year or not, time will tell. The last rose bush has bloomed profusely and those are the left overs for now. I clipped the undone blooms back so we'll have more roses soon. This year, after the first frost, I want to collect the rose hips. I collected them too soon last year, I discovered. Ah well. But the petals and leaves do make a good cup of tea, also. :) We got the house all stained last year and painted the shutters, then I stenciled them a couple of months ago. It really made a nice difference in the looks of the house and the wood got a very nice drink of stain. Should do it one more time this year, too, then it can go for another 3 to 5 years before we need to do it again. The wood was REAL thirsty and soaked it all up rather quickly.

The shot below is the new flower bed I planted this spring. It isn't growing a whole lot yet. On the other side of the fence, bordered by the scalloped brick, is a blackberry bush that Angie and Brian bought and planted for me.