My Early Spring Perennial Garden

Oh, it's that wonderful time of year again when the perennial garden springs to life!  This is my absolutely favorite time of the year as I love watching all the plants spring up out of the ground.  Join me, as we walk through my early spring perennial garden.

Crocus are the very first flowers to bloom in the spring.  I don't have many left, and I really need to plant more this fall.  But fall is such a busy time of year for me, and I rarely have time to plant bulbs.  In fact last year I had a bucket of daffodil bulbs I could never find the time to replant, so I just tossed them into the woods.  Sad, I know, but I'm hoping they will somehow regrow there.

Seeing my first crocus bloom is always exciting and fills me with so much hope that spring is almost here!

The next flower to bloom is the daffodils.  I have a hillside of daffodils (so now you understand why I threw the excess daffodil bulbs into the woods).  Every year I end up with a bucket full of bulbs and I have been gradually trying to replant them and grow them in other parts of the yard, but they really seem to prefer this dry steep hillside.

I have several different varieties as you can see in all the photos.

They really are jaw-dropping gorgeous in the spring!

I keep a fresh bouquet of daffodils in the house all season long.  I love their intoxicating scent.

After the daffodils fade away, the tulips begin to bloom.  They are not as prolific as the daffodils but they are one of my favorite flowers!

I bring those into the house too!

In past years I've had problems with bunnies and deer eating my tulips, but thankfully they have left them alone this year.  I am so grateful for them as my heart has broken before.

My yard is overrun with Bleeding Hearts!  They reseed everywhere for me.  But I love these flowers so much!  

The flowering crabs were gorgeous this year, although as always, way too short-lived.

My Lamium is quite the show-stopper this year, although it is completely out-of-control!  This plant comes back over and over again, no matter how many times I dig it up and thin it out.  Oh well, it's a good problem to have as it is low growing and quite beautiful.  It's perfect for areas where not much else grows and is a nice filler plant.

Even though I re-planted so many blue hyacinth bulbs, only a few seemed to have survived.  I've always loved this pretty delicate plant.

Sometimes Mother Nature creates the most beautiful color combinations.  I never put these two plants together myself (like I said earlier, Lamium has a mind of its own), but don't they look great? 

This wall planter is located on my front porch and gets no sun at all.  It's been difficult finding plants that don't mind living here,  even Impatiens struggle.  This year I tried pansies and they thrived!  I don't know how long they will last though.

Creeping Plox is always gorgeous in the spring.

My lilac bushes have just started to bloom.  I brought a small bouquet of the early-blooming variety into the house and I couldn't believe how much the house was filled with its fragrance from this small amount.

My husband and I really noticed how much this yellow bush popped against the red shed this year,  It hasn't always been that vibrant.

Chive reseeds itself so much, and has such a pretty flower I decided to plant some in my front perennial garden.  This garden is right off my kitchen making it easy to run out and snip some when I need it for a meal.

I don't do a lot of far-away photos in my gardening posts because it always just look like a sea of green in the pictures.  But I can assure you, in real life it is much more colorful.  Anyway, here are a few landscape shots so you can see how lush and green everything is.  That is my neighbor's creeping phlox in the distance.

I always like to include a cat photo in my garden posts.  I thought this one was so funny.  Jasper and a squirrel are having a stand-off.  The squirrel has no idea what to do.  He knows he is being watched, so he just froze.  He stayed this way for minutes before scampering away.  😁

 

And that is all I have of my very early spring perennial garden.  I will back in a few weeks with a veggie garden update.  I only have two veggie gardens planted so far plus a strawberry bed.  Once everything is planted I will do that post.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

How to Style Scarves with Ageless Style

Ageless Style is a monthly style challenge and link up for women of all ages.   Each month we pick a different theme and style an outfit based on that theme.  This month's theme is "Scarves" and was picked by Jodie..

This month the ladies of Ageless Style and I are styling "Scarves".  But I am going to narrow down that category specifically to a "Neckerchief".  If you buy only one new item this season, I would buy a neckerchief.  It's simply a smaller scarf, usually in the shape of a rectangle, that you can tie around your neck, put in your hair, or tie onto a hand bag.  The neckerchief is super on-trend this season and you will see them on display in all the stores.  I just purchased a half dozen of them from TJMaxx because I couldn't decide which one I wanted and they were only about $6.99 each.  

I also purchased this pretty green short sleeve sweater from TJMaxx.  It's just perfect for spring because of the color and when else can you wear a short sleeve sweater 😀?  I wore this sweater and a different neckerchief with white pants for Easter.  

Neckerchiefs are like a piece of jewelry; they add ornamentation to an otherwise plain outfit.  I don't think this simple green sweater would look the same without the neckerchief.  I love the pop of pink in this scarf against the apple green.  

There are so many different ways to wear a neckerchief around your neck.  Here I simply folded it into a triangle and tied it once, then I flipped one of the ends over to hide the knot.   I also love the Classic French Knot, and threading it through the knot as shown in THIS VIDEO.

I especially love neckerchiefs for the extra warmth they provide in our cool springs.  I know it may not look like it because neckerchiefs aren't full scarves, but they really do keep me warm.  In fact, because they are so small, I can easily keep one in my purse and pull it out when I feel cold.  I actually did that this past weekend in Lake Geneva.  It was so cold and windy in the morning, so I wore my neckerchief.  But by afternoon it really warmed up and was no longer needed, so back in my bag it went.  

I wore my light green sweater with dark denim wide leg cropped jeans.  The jeans look so much darker in the picture than they are in real life.  The colorful sweater really pops against the dark blue jeans.

If scarves are too big and bulky for you, try a simple, small neckerchief.  They are so versatile and if you end up not liking to wear it around your neck, use it as a head band or head scarf, tie it around your hand bag, thread it around belt loops as a colorful sash, wrap it tightly around your wrist as a chunky bracelet...there are so many uses for a neckerchief!  Enjoy!

And now be sure to see how the other ladies are styling their scarves and link up with us as well!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Seneca Rocks West Virginia

This is part four of a travel series to West Virginia.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!

After spending the morning in Blackwater Falls State Park we drove 45 minutes to our next stop for the night:   Seneca Rocks.

Seneca Rocks is a 900 foot Tuscarora quartzite crag in Pendleton County, West Virginia.  It is located within the Spruce-Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area and it offers world-class traditional climbing, scenic trails, and rich history in the Monongahela National Forest.  There is a visitor center, but it wasn't open yet for the season when we were there...which I thought was ridiculous 😡.  In fact, the road into the Seneca Rocks area was actually CLOSED!  Thankfully, you can still easily access the trail by walking in.  We were also disappointed that the Dolly Sods Wilderness area (another must-see West Virginia attraction) was closed in April.  Apparently, they close the roads in winter in West Virginia for safety reasons and don't re-open them till around mid-April and we were there about a week too early 😢.

We have stayed in a lot of different hotels/motels before but this was the first time we rented a room above a store!  There aren't many places to stay around Seneca Rocks, so it was either this or camping.  Yokum's is actually a campground offering tent camping, RV camping, even tee pee camping, but they also have a few rooms above their general store and restaurant to rent too, so that's what we did.  The room, though dated, was actually not so bad.  It was spacious, and had a little kitchette, tv, internet, everything you'd expect in a motel room (sorry, I never took a photo).

The building on the right is a separate business and is West Virginia's Oldest Store built in 1902.  There is a restaurant inside, but it wasn't open for the season yet.  Thankfully, Yokum's serves food all year round, or we would have starved.  

We did go inside Harper's Old County Store but I didn't take any photos 😢.  The employee said everything in the building was original.  It was pretty cool!

The main reason we stayed here, was because it was located directly across the street from Seneca Rocks.  In fact, we could see the amazing rock formation from our hotel window.  What a view!

Because the park was closed, after checking into our hotel, we just walked across the street to the trail head.  First we came to this pretty bridge.

The bridge had pretty views of Seneca Creek.

The first part of the trail at the base of the trail is fairly level and is filled with all these rocks that must have fallen over the years.  It was really cool seeing so many rocks amongst the trees, I've never seen that before.

But eventually all good things must come to an end and the uphill climb began 😁. The Seneca Rocks Trail is 1.3 miles each way with a 960 elevation deck that leads to an observation deck with panoramic views of the North Fork River Valley.

So many cool rocks!

Even though there is no foliage hiking this time of year, there are advantages to that:  you can see through the trees!  Normally foliage would block scenic views like this.

We could even see the top of Seneca Rocks through the trees, which would normally be covered up tree foliage. 

Unlike the Maryland Heights Trail at Harpers Ferry, the Seneca Rocks Trail had switchbacks, so climbing uphill wasn't that bad.  There were so many signs about staying on the trail and not climbing up the hill to skip the switchbacks.  Why anyone would put themselves through that misery, I have no idea, but apparently a lot of people think it's a better shortcut.

After almost an hour of climbing up, we finally got a glimpse of the observation deck...so we knew we were almost there 😃!

And the views of the North Fork River Valley were definitely worth the hike!

You can climb higher than the observation deck if you dare.  My husband and son went further on, I chose to wait (and pray) for their return on a bench on the observation deck.

The next two photos show the views from the rock scrambling area that my husband and son did alone.

As always, the hike back down was easier than the hike up.  At the base of Seneca Rocks is an old homestead.  It was closed while we were there, but we walked around the property and peeked through the windows.

It was nice that we could still see inside the home even though it was closed.  Isn't this room cool?  I'd live in it today!

Of course, I'd have to put in modern plumbing before moving in 😆.

They had a garden.  I like how they sectioned everything off with rocks and had walking paths in-between.  

And just look at those views! Wouldn't you love to live here and see that view everyday?

The apple trees were blooming already, and we thought they looked so pretty with the rock formation in the background.  The sun was so bright, I had to look away from the camera.  And see how I'm dressed with just a tee?  We started the day at Blackwater Falls State Park wearing winter coats because it was only in the thirties.  By the end of the day, it was in the sixties!  That is spring weather in West Virginia.  Dress in layers if you visit during the off-season.

We only had one choice for dinner and that was Yokums.  They do make good burgers.  I saw a lot of people ordering pizza too.

Well, by now we were tired after a full day of hiking.  It was nice to be able to just walk upstairs after dinner and go to bed.  The silhouette of Seneca Rocks was absolutely breathtaking.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

For more posts from this travel series check these out:

Harpers Ferry West Virginia

Hiking the Maryland Heights Trail at Harpers Ferry

Old Town Winchester

Blackwater Falls State Park West Virginia