Enjoying the Wonderful Weather

My lack of posts this year is no indication of lack of activity in the garden.  We have been very fortunate with great weather for the past few weeks (we are actually hoping for rain, which sounds crazy in Vancouver BC, but I'm getting a bit tired of watering the fruit trees), and the garden is looking great.  I bought this wonderful tree peony last year, and this is my first bloom, just in time for mother's day.

A few years ago, someone gave me some pink lily-of-the-valley, and this year they have become a  good patch underneath some of my bushes.  I also have the white ones, so was able to bring some into the bathroom, using this cute little vase from my sister-in-law, Cynthia.  Even though a small number of flowers, the fragrance was amazing.

Speaking of fragrance, I have some lilacs at the back of the property, but the bush has grown so high that I had a hard time reaching and cutting a few blooms to bring inside :

This year I have been fortunate to be able to make quite a bit of time to work in the garden.  I will need to take more photos of all the progress.  I had also been painting more bird houses.  This one is my most recent, inspired by images of my 14-year-old's fave bands : BVB & BOTDF.

I have a few more I need to get installed into the garden, and the ones which overwintered needed some glue repairs (I need to find some better quality birdhouses than the ones at Michaels, which look nice, but are junk).  Here are a few of the houses I've painted: