Lovely Weekend!

 We had a really wonderful weekend. Saturday we puttered and did Useful Things around the house, then my parents and my uncle came over for a (delicious!) dinner. After church today we all worked out in the yard -- it was just glorious out! -- and then some reading outside, puttering, yummy dinner, Doctor Who. Perfection!

My weeping cherry -- today when we got home the wind was blowing off the petals so it looked like a pink snowstorm!

Travis, picking up magnolia cones. You would not Believe how many cones our two trees drop every year. And to think I used to like magnolia trees! (They do have very nice flowers.)

And these lovely volunteers just show up every year by the oil tank! We've never had yellow before, or such a lovely stripey orange!

Travis taking a wheelbarrow full of magnolia cones to the burn barrel. They burn beautifully.

And Katie, finishing digging out her garden! (The lawn looks so awful because the mower conked out when we tried to start it this year and one of the many new parts it needed hasn't arrived yet. This week, hopefully, we'll get the yard looking less like a meadow!) She planted carrots and corn today, and now she's realized she'll have to dig it bigger if she wants to plant all the other things she has in mind.

And here is the Dwarf Bradford Pear that Travis was given by his sponsor when he was confirmed last year. It seems to be thriving!

And our Montmorency (?) cherries are covered in blossoms. Of course, the birds will get the few cherries, but the trees are pretty!

I planted this grape vine quite a few years ago, but every year the Japanese beetles devour it just as the grapes start to grow. Maybe this year the beetles will go elsewhere?

And a dandelion. The Japanese beetles won't touch it.