What I'm doing when I'm not making fake motivational posters or whining about the weather.

I'm out in the yard, gardening my fingers to the bone. To the bone, people.

Sunday was sunny, warm and perfect, so after I dropped my mother off at the airport, I went to one of the local garden centers and brought home a car load of plants. Then I tore out some phlox that was trying to take over the perennial border and added six shrub rose bushes. I also divided some sedum and stuck it into some bare spots.

Monday took a bunch of nicotiana, petunias, and some trailing thingie with blue flowers for the twenty-foot long window box in the front of the house. And started filling the boxes.

Tuesday I cleaned off the back deck and got rid of everything that had died.

Wednesday ... I don't remember Wednesday. I think I watered stuff.

Thursday I went to a different garden center and brought home a bunch of forget-me-nots for the shady area that apparently didn't care for last year's Coral Bells experiment. Also some common sage for a sunny spot that used to have hostas until the poor things burned up in last summer's drought.

Today I came home with six more rose bushes. So if the weather cooperates, I will get a bunch more plants into the ground tomorrow.

But it probably won't.

See, I'm back at my computer now, having run around and closed all the windows because it's chilly. And it might rain. Which is OK weather for putting plants into the ground, but not so great for the "chicks night out" garden party a friend of mine is throwing. Every year she rents a tent, gets the caterer, and invites 80 of her favorite girlfriends for cosmos and yummy nibbles. Last year her yard was a vast ocean of Lilly Pulitzer, bare tanned legs, and highlighted blonde hair.

This year I think I'm wearing a sweatshirt, and I'm debating the idea of wearing socks under my hot pink slides.

So Internet, don't feel flattered that I'm not out in the yard gardening, getting myself covered with dirt and sweat and neglecting you shamefully. I'm only back blogging because there's weather to whine about. And I'm all about the whining.

Oh--Blackbird has reminded me to post a picture of my favorite plant for show-and-tell Thursday (which was changed from Friday without my permission):

Golden Flame Honeysuckle. The plant is two years old, and it's s growing up a downspout and filling up an awkward empty spot near the front door.

I'm in Zone 5, and I highly recommend it. It's totally cold-tolerant, leafs out in May, bursts into giddy amounts of pink and orange flowers in June, looks great for about two weeks, and does all of this for almost no care at all.

That's it behind the George Vancouver shrub roses (from the Canadian Explorer series--cold tolerant to Zone 3, people!) and to the left of the still-empty window box and the Japanese Maple:

When it warms up a bit, I've got my work cut out for me. Until then, I've got to slip into some mukluks and head off to a garden party.