The final post about gardens...

is from an hydrangea bush that my son Michael planted in my rose garden! It's just there until he finds a better place it! Michael has a heart when it comes to plants and trees. He should, after all, it's what he was educated about and a field he loves to work in! I have lots of poor plants in my yard. "I'm just going to plant it to see if it lives, Mom" is a statement I've heard many times. A little TLC is all most of these plants need to make a come back. This hydrangea plant was part of project where Mike took a slip or root or something from another plant in order to start a new one. It's small, but it's pretty! Okay, it's not pretty now, but it will be, come summer time!

Honestly, I am running out of ideas..

but this caught my eye the other day as I was on my way in the door after work. It's been relatively warm this week considering it's January and after seeing every one's post's this week with real, live flowers, it made me long for planting my garden. Patience, I must have patience!

Not the most inspiring picture..

but I was pressed for time and light by the time I headed outside yesterday afternoon. Again, I was working on composition and eliminating any distracting backgrounds. I love this well. It was a gift made for me by my hubby!

My garden is not colorful...

Actually it's dormant (that's a nicer word than "dead") but I needed to take a picture outside so, I took this shot of some grasses that we planted several years ago. We used to cut them down as soon as they died but have now decided to leave them alone because they do give an otherwise bland landscape a bit of personality! I was working a little on composition here. Trying to get the grass and the sky without the trees and other distracting backgrounds. I had to lay in the wet, berry covered mulch to do this. I think KR would like that, even if it's landscape shot!

The practice begins in earnest ....

and I'm off from work today. The theme this week is "my garden." Sort of tough to do around here since it's the middle of winter but I'm going to work on a comparison shot for you. I took the first photo just a few days ago when I noticed the robins eating the berries on a tree in my yard while coming back from a walk with the dog. Robins, I thought, are one of the first signs of spring. Maybe Puxatauwny Phil has some competition! The second shot is the same tree today. I'm thinking those robins are well fed and I'm hoping they fly south before all that stuff digests!