Early--EARLY Spring Flowers in our Yard

Hello!!!!  Welcome to March!  Our winter overall has been so mild --so it has made me excited about SPRING.   However,  I know that we 'may' have more cold weather before Spring truly gets here... SO???  As much fun as it is to see Spring growth,  it still scares me a little --wondering what kind of March and April we will have.......???????

BUT today,  I'll show you the first Spring flowers in our yard this year.  All of these pictures were taken on February 23....    As a matter of reference,  our first Daffodil bloomed last year on March 13....  This year,  they are 2.5 weeks earlier!!!!!  This is definitely the earliest spring I can remember --at least since we moved here in 2003.

Hope you enjoy our new blooms.  Above is some of our gorgeous CROCUS blooms.  Aren't they just so pretty????  Be sure and click on the pictures to make them larger.

We planted PANSIES last Fall --in hopes of having some color in the yard during the winter.  They have done very well this year.   Here's one pretty bloom for you to enjoy!

Our main ground cover all through the yard is PERIWINKLE.  In the Spring,  the Periwinkle blooms and we have lots and lots of gorgeous blue flowers..  Here is a picture of one of them blooming already!!!

Here's another patch of a small CROCUS plant which Dad Adams gave us in 2003.   This one blooms every year for us ---and reminds us of Dad and his love of beautiful flowers. He doesn't have a garden any longer ---but certainly had a beautiful one for many years.

This is the first bloom from our CANDY TUFT.  I couldn't get it out of the shade so I had to hold it up in order to get a picture... Soon,  we should have LOTS of Candy Tuft blooming!!!

Finally,  here is our first Daffodil blooms for 2012.  I love Daffodils (grew up calling them Jonquils since that is what my mother said)---and we have many many more to bloom.

Well---that is what we have to share SO FAR... I'm sure that I'll have many, many more posts as spring truly gets here...

Have a wonderful weekend.  I will see you on Monday.

Hugs,
Betsy

Special Valentine's Day Dinner

The lobby area at Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge Restaurant

I thought I'd better get my act together and get this post published before Valentine's Day gets here again next year!!!!!! ha ha ..... Anyhow--I've talked some about our great Waterfall and Hiking Trip which we took from Feb. 13-15.   BUT--what I haven't talked about was the delicious meal that George and I enjoyed on Valentine's Evening...

My Sweetheart took me to the Amicalola Falls Lodge Restaurant (near Dawsonville, GA) for a VERY special meal. They offered a fabulousl buffet with many kinds of salads, breads, soups,  entrees and desserts.  All of it was DELICIOUS and the  place was decorated so pretty.   They even provided live music for us.  We got there early so it wasn't crowded yet... Of course,  that's how we like it!

Here are a few of the pictures I took of that pretty restaurant.  Be sure and click on the photos to see them larger. 

Here is a view from our table ---which showed off all of the FOG outside!!!! ha ha... Usually there is a great view of the surrounding mountains since this lodge sits on the top of the mountain above the waterfall.

That is our table (in the middle).  Now you can get a great view of the FOG....   You can see a little bit of one of the mountain ranges to the right..   This is a gorgeous lodge --so if you ever get in this area,  check it out!!!!

This shows more of the restaurant and decorations.  As I said,  we got there early for dinner ---so there weren't many folks there yet.   I'm sure it would have been full a little later in the evening.

Here were our two musicians.  They were very good ---and George and I loved hearing all of that "LOVE" music!!!!!!!

This was just one more of the pretty decorations ---found all over the buffet area and restaurant.   Some of the entrees we had to choose from were:  BBQ Ribs,  Prime Rib (a favorite of ours),  Shrimp,  and Cabbage Rolls....

After dinner,   we enjoyed sitting in the lodge area at the fireplace...  The photo in the picture is of Amicalola Falls,  one of our favorite waterfalls.

WELL-- besides eating and sitting by the fire,  we also enjoyed our hiking during the day on that Valentine's Day..  Many of you may recognize this beautiful waterfall,  Anna Ruby Falls.  It's one of Georgia's most popular waterfalls.  We had seen it before ---but loved seeing it again this year.   Hope you had as happy a Valentine's Day as we had!!!!!

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Betsy