Peak Cherry Blossom Day, Flowers for the Home
I’ve skipped Friday Five for a few weeks because I’ve had other posts to write and didn’t want to overload myself. But I’m back with five things from the past week!
1. Peak Cherry Blossoms: I absolutely love seeing DC’s cherry blossoms at peak bloom! The predicted peak bloom date was this Monday, April 1, so that morning I got up, got dressed, and headed straight to the Tidal Basin. I will confess that I struggled to convince myself to go because it was was chilly and windy…but I did it! The cold and wind aggravated my skin for the next couple days, but it was still worth it. I only spent about 15 minutes there because my fingers and toes were starting to freeze, but I was very happy that I went.
2. New Vanda Orchid: John and I went to Lowe’s on Sunday morning to buy some plants for our back yard. While browsing the gardening section I spotted a few Vanda orchids, which I’ve never seen at Lowe’s before! I haven’t tried growing any Vandas yet because they require high humidity, but I simply couldn’t help myself when I saw them. Here’s hoping I can keep this beautiful Vanda happy and alive indoors until we build our greenhouse this summer. HOW GORGEOUS ARE THESE FLOWERS?!
3. Plants! Our home’s previous owners left a bunch of Wooly Pockets and large planters in the back yard for us. Most of the plants in the pots died over the winter, so I wanted to get replacements to fill them. We picked out a variety of plants and I have no experience growing most of them, so we’ll see how this goes. We got hydrangea, lilac, gardenia, rosemary, basil, two types of strawberries, calla lily, and lavender. There’s also one pot of mint that seems to have survived the winter and is actually coming back to life. Send good vibes for our plants, please!
4. Vases: I also made a Target run last weekend to pick up some things for our house. I’d been wanting to get vases, because we only had one and it doesn’t work for all kinds of flowers. So I bought these three vases; I love the variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. The larger one on the left was on sale for less than $8! Score! We’re using the smaller red and white one as a bud vase in our half bath.
5. Trickling Springs Creamery: a few weeks ago we got a sweet card from neighbors in the apartment building next door welcoming us to the neighborhood. Even sweeter of them: they included a gift card to nearby Trickling Springs Creamery! So I recently stopped in and used the gift card for two pints of ice cream, one chocolate chip cookie dough and one chip ‘n’ mint (my all time favorite ice cream flavor). Both were delicious and I’ll absolutely go back for more. Now we just need to hunt our neighbors down somehow and thank them in person!
