although this title is goofy, i assure you that our awesome carport is not!

since the weather is steadily warming up and we had a few 90 degree days this week, we have again begun to use our carport like an extra room of the house. last year we did the same but it wasn’t nearly as decked out with awesome places to sit and cool contraptions!

we have a long, wooden handicap ramp that was here when we bought the house. it comes off of the kitchen door and ends nearly at the edge of the carport-porch. there is also a gate that opens from the side of the ramp into the main area of the carport and right beside a door where we have our chicken food and the stairs into the basement. we have hanging baskets attached to the the railing of the ramp with a bunch of cool plants in them.

a view of the carport.

the rest of the carport is one big open space! we have a wooden chest that holds planting equipment and also acts as a seat, an older table where we sometimes do planting or potting, and an awesome patio table that my dad found for us in someone’s junk pile by the side of the road. we’ve also got a handful of comfy seats surrounding the table and a hummingbird feeder directly above. what a view!

our planting and relaxing tables!

plants abound in the carport-porch, as they do in the yard and gardens. there is always a flowering bush in bloom that we can see from our awesome carport and at night we cut on our string of christmas lights… very romantic and dim enough that the bugs don’t flock to the light source!

the snowball bush that we can see from the carport.

since the eaves of the house are wide, you can almost always catch the shade from our relaxing table. i also recently hung a little handmade bird house that my father crafted from the natural hole in a hollow tree and an antique, iron bell that is so loud you would not hear a jet engine over the ringing!

our awesome, iron bell. dinner’s ready!

this is why we love spending time outside in the carport-porch! sometimes we plug in our box fan if it is really hot or to keep the biting insects away and sometimes we plug in our computers and work on posts like this one. other times we sit and watch the sun set over our land and trees, while bolt runs around or hides under his new favorite bush.

watching the sun go down through the trees.

one thing is for sure, though: our carport + two glasses of wine = one amazing, relaxing, and beautiful time!

.:.

i’ve decided to write another brief spring flower post, partially because flower pictures can usually speak for themselves and don’t need a lengthy explanation and partially because i have so many things to write about and i just can’t decide where to start. so, i just picked something simple and lovely to start with.

this means you can expect some other posts coming soon about the many things we’ve been doing here on the homestead, like:

• planting our spring vegetable crops in trays and in open beds
• planting our 50-ish fruit trees and bushes
• clearing out some of our wooded area around the corn crib, barn, and yard for planting and to expand our work/activity space
• cleaning a bunch of trash out of the woods, and finding some useful junk (love me some useful junk!)
• skunk sightings
• snake and salamander encounters
• finding a soft-shelled egg
• altering a wedding dress

for now, though, i would just like to share more lovely flowers that are coming out for a visit. most of these flowers/trees/bushes started blooming last week or the week before.

our front yard crab apple, which never bloomed last year. we were so excited to see it show its true colors this year.

some low-lying, ground flowers blooming under the crab apple. what are they? we don’t know their name!

our dwarf apple tree, planted last year, beginning to bloom!

our first blueberry, also planted last year, going green!

these tulips have been much more plentiful this year than they were last year. they were already in the bed beside our carport when we moved in last year.

and these are perhaps the sweetest smelling flowers ever! jason got this meyers lemon from his workplace. it is exciting to see it blooming since that means we’ll see some baby lemons arriving soon (fingers crossed!).

.:.

although we welcomed spring last week, i haven’t really had the time to stop and think about what that means until today. as we all know, spring, of course, means flowers! it also means planting and growing vegetables, and the beginning of the hard-work-every-day-on-the-homestead phase of the year. this time of the year is fantastic, filled with excitement about the upcoming growing seasons, the fresh air (and the desire to be outside in the sun), and the anticipation of eating, eating, and eating-some-more our homegrown crops.

today i finally took the time to notice and photograph the flowers that have just recently started to show their true colors!

daffodils

daffodils are my very favorite flowers, ever. i love the different varieties, i love the way they smell, i love having them growing all around! i love them! i had originally wanted to get married during daffodil season to be sure to have some around, but spring turned out to be not-the-best time for us to have a big celebration here at home.

the daffodils came up a few weeks ago, around early/mid-march and have been going strong ever since. when we got some freezing and icy weather shortly after they came up, i was worried about the blooms, but the already existing blooms recovered well and new blooms just keep on coming!

daffodils growing by our front walk

daylillies

yum! not only are daylillies wonderful to look at, they are also delicious! the flowers can be eaten, but my favorite parts are the “greens” (the fresh shoots that have just come up). they are wonderful when sauteed in olive oil and soy sauce, not to mention nutritious.

these guys just popped out a few weeks ago, and since i never transplanted them out of a bucket from last year, i was glad to see them (since i was worried that being in a metal bucket above ground during the 7 degree nights had killed them).

daylillies just starting to join the spring flower dance!

irises

our irises are planted in a bed next to the house, and we don’t have any blooms yet, but we do have some fresh, green growth. i am looking forward to seeing their large purple blooms in the next few weeks. these flowers ventured above ground about the same time that the daylillies did.

irises: a new beginning!

forsythia 

i’ve finally learned what the name of these bushes are (because jason keeps telling me every time i simply say “that yellow bush by the road”). their lovely yellow flowers just appeared mid-march and if last year is any indication, there should be shocking, 4-foot tall, bright yellow poof balls in our yard soon.

one of our many forsythia by the road beginning to bloom

bradford pear blooms

we moved into our house almost exactly a year ago, and i remember that our bradford pear went into bloom right after we moved in. i will always associate the bright white blooms with the happiness of our housewarming month, and i’m glad that i finally got a picture of it this year! because the flowers are fleeting, that makes them even more special; the tree started to bud about 2 or 3 weeks ago and finally bloomed a few days ago. we should only have another week or so of seeing the flowers before the petals start to blow away in the wind, blanketing our backyard with the best confetti ever–a perfect celebration of spring!

our blooming bradford; bolt loves the spring too!

happy spring to all!

.:.