The house is going from Booth Bay gray w/ Hamilton blue to Cedar Path w/ Nob Hill green. Will be finished the end of the coming week. Oh boy!

Recently I:
- Had my grandchildren choose and plant their own plants in our garden - children do make excellent choices (like Helichrysum and Brachycome)! My almost six-year-old granddaughter pouted when I told her we had to bring her home and wouldn't have time to plant any more plants. Sounds like me!
- Planted lots of new (to me) variegated plants (e.g., Carex 'Beatlemania', variegated daylily and spotted Heuchera) with the goal of lightening the mood of the garden.
- Acquired lots more ornamental grasses, after getting hooked on them last year.
- Started consciously thinking more of designing with color, and being bolder with it.
- Realized that, with a nice variety of plants in place, and with something blooming at any given time in the growing season, I can splurge by getting lots of each of a few plants that I love. The backdrop is in place now, about seven years after the start of my current garden.

Wishing you a belated happy birthday,
Wendy

Sounds like you had a GREAT birthday! Wish my family would catch on and get me gift cards at the local nurseries -- you'd think they would take one look at our garden and figure out what my newest passion is. And springtime is so addictive -- all those beautiful new flowers everywhere in neighborhood gardens and the garden centers, just really inspire one.

We are anxiously awaiting the end of a remodeling -- found some dry rot in one wall and the contractor's scaffolding has been sitting in two of my flower beds for a whole month, waiting for dry weather to happen! I want so badly to replant the damaged beds, but can't do it until he's outta here, so it's so frustrating for me.

After all, any excuse to go shop for some new plants, hehehe...