More pretty flowers on the grounds. The purpley one is clematis and the other is some type of daisy.

More flowers. This is a bunch of freshly cut peonies. I cut these because, unfortunately I had to move the plants as we are having some foundation work done on the back of the house to prop up the kitchen, pantry and back entry floor (pictures of that to come later). According to the article linked to here, peonies don't like to be moved (I believe it, the plants are looking very sad right now) and may not bloom again for years. That's a darn shame. We have a number of peony bushes, but most of them are the dark pink later blooming variety. Don't get me wrong, those are pretty too, but it's nice to have the variety.

Here are a few more pictures of the flora we've been enjoying in the yard. The first picture is Trillium. This plant is actually a protected species in our state. It's a very attractive plant with long lived flowers. We have a number of clusters of trillium around the property.

On the bottom we have scabiosa centaurea. It's a very unusual flower, but also very pretty.

It's hard to believe that one "crop" of spring flowers is already done and we're on to the second wave. The crocuses, snowdrops and winter aconites have faded away and now we're seeing daffodils, grape hyacinths, the beginnings of tulips and the mystery plant here to the left. My plant identification skills aren't all they could be, this one looks familiar to me, but I have no idea what it is.

I was thrilled to spot a Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker in our backyard on Sunday afternoon. I have never seen one of these and had to look it up in the bird identification book to figure out what it was. Luckily I had the binoculars close at hand (though not the camera, sorry) and the bird stuck around for a while so I got a good look at him.

I've recently read all of the journal entries of Bill down at Enon Hall. Eight years ago he, his wife and young son purchased his ancestral home in Virginia's Northern Neck and they've been working on it ever since. I'm quite envious of his skills and the time to do so much of the work on the place themselves. It's really coming along and looks great. I did so appreciate hearing about their trials with contractors and their "loose" schedules/sense of time, delays in shipments, and other unexpected work slowdowns and holdups. It's nice to know that we're not the only ones experiencing these problems.