Before and After...

Usually when we read this saying the "after" photo is the more desirable shot.
This time around, not so much....

Before:

After:

This is one girl who can't wait for Spring!!

I wish I would have known...

All gardeners at some point regret the plant choices they've made in the throws of excitement.
And I am no different.
Having no plan, no consideration to garden design or preconceived notion as to what I am shopping for, will stop randomly at my local garden center.
And purchase plants I am truly sorry I did.

This invasive, impossible to dig out every root plant is called 'Coronation Gold' Yarrow.
It spreads like wild fire on a dry prairie field. It seems that the more you try to cut it out the more it spreads.

This is it in the lower left corner. The flower is a nondescript yellow button.

The next plant is the 'Ostrich' fern. A "good" friend gave me a few fronds.

A word to the "wise" lol...
If a friend has something growing in his yard that he consistently gives away, beware.

Now don't get me wrong, I adore ferns. Just not the ones that crowd out and overtake any living thing in its path.

This fern eventually "swallowed" the hostas growing nearby.

So this spring, as every spring, I vow to dig up these thugs.
And not give them to a friend

In all of this, there is always life

This beautiful scene is one I enjoyed on a walk with my two daughters over the Thanksgiving holiday. We took long walks to help combat the calories we were inhaling! Ha

Even though I enjoyed these walks immensely, it was disconcerting that all of nature seems to be turning gray and brown.

Until my heart leaped for joy over  this next little vignette!

Isn't is lovely?? aaahhhh... I love moss....

                             In heaven, I am going to walk barefoot through fields of moss....aahhhhhh...

On the way home from my visit with my oldest daughter, my middle daughter and I stopped in a little town called Lititiz. Home of the Wilbur chocolate factory....

  

                                              This chocolate "scene" is completely edible!
                                        We had fun at the factory but didn't eat or buy anything!
                                               I think we were still full from Thanksgiving, lol.


                            okay... and this is what we've been baking and delivering... cheesecakes!

A sampling of three: Caramel Apple, Italian with Oreo crust ( delivered with a cup of triple berry sauce),
                                   and  Chocolate-Raspberry with chocolate ganache.

                                                   I was glad to get them out of the house!