Spring, Sprang, Sprung

My goodness, we are being spoiled.

The weather has been just perfect.

It is, dare I say, almost summer-like.  And technically, it is still winter.

Now that's clever.  Summer-like weather in winter.

This is the 7 day forecast from the local tv station.  Do you see Thursday?  84 degrees!  Now mind you I see that 55 on Sunday, but who cares?!?!

We've got mid 70's-mid 80's to enjoy over the next 3 days!  Even if we go back to our regular temperatures soon, this is just delightful.

And the yards are coming alive.  The grass is getting a bit green.  And buds are popping out on the trees.

Since Lucy aka "the dog" got herself into trouble yesterday, I made sure to go out with her in the yard today when she was taking care of business.

And there was much to see.

Here are some buds on the weeping cherry tree just off the deck.

With this weather and if it continues to be mild, I am sure the weeping cherry will be in full bloom very, very soon.

The leaves are starting to pop out on the lilac bush.  This lilac bush has quite a story.

The original bush was planted at my great Aunt Grace's(of Aunt Grace's brownies) house years and years and years ago.  As you can tell I am not exactly how long ago, but if I had to guess it was most likely in the 1940's-early 1950's.

When my Nana & Grampa bought their house in the early 60's, Nana wanted to have some lilacs like her sister, Aunt Grace.  So, they went and dug up some of the lilacs and planted them at their new house.

And they grew. And bloomed.  And were trimmed.  Year after year after year.

Over the years many relatives dug up bits and planted the small pieces at their respective houses.

Fast forward to when Hubby & I bought our 1st house in 1996.  What do you think I wanted to have planted in the yard?

Yup, lilac bushes from Nana's house.  So we dug out some shoots and brought them home.  This was in September.  The shoots lived with their rootball in a garbage bag for the winter.

Yes, the whole winter.  Tucked up against a corner of our new house.  I was pretty convinced it was dead.    And amazingly, when spring came around leaf buds started!

So, we planted our little shoots. And it grew and grew and grew into a huge bush.  I just loved it.

Isn't it huge?  Hard to believe it started from a couple of very small shoots that were almost frozen to death in a garbage bag.  Took this picture at the old house in May 2005.

Look at all those blooms!  I can't wait for the bush I have now to have that many blooms.

Then we decided to buy a new house in very late 2005.  Luckily the timing worked out that we moved to the new house in late February 2006 and sold the old house in early April.

As soon as the ground was thawed enough to dig, I made Hubby dig up a good section of the lilac bush to transplant at the new house.

Now, that bush is growing and growing and growing.  Every year there are more and more lilacs.  I can't wait to see how many I have this year.

A lilac just about to bloom last year.

I think it's amazing that the original lilac bush at Aunt Grace's was planted ever so long ago.  A legacy those lilacs are in our family.  I think of Aunt Grace and Nana every time I look at the bush.

Daylilies in the backyard popping up amidst the dead oak leaves.  Because of the October storm, I didn't get a chance to clean up the flower beds.  Lots of work to do. This is the perfect week to get it started.

For the life of me I can't remember what this little blue flower is called.  There are a few of them in one of the beds.  The blue is just so bright against all the brown around it.  I love it!

potd #77.  My lilac with its leaves starting to pop.  Won't be long now before I see how many blooms we will have this year.