Half full?

Sometimes, despite my very best efforts, that glass just forces itself to be half full.

There was a lot of bitching and moaning this morning. I was out in the yard and, okay, don't get me wrong. I love spring. April is my favorite month. And Seattle foliage is so insanely beautiful right now there aren't even words to describe it or pictures that fully capture it. But, it's also a ton of work, especially with the combination of 70 degree days followed by rain followed by 70 degree days. It is the invasive species version of heaven.

Let's make a list of the current nonsense I'm thinking about:

1. The 110 foot long laurel hedge that I can't really do justice to and keeps creeping higher and higher. (Project Hedge)
2. Weeds, an infinity number of weeds
3. And because they deserve their own line, there are even more dandelions than infinity and their roots are so damn long you'll never kill them.
4. Grass that is so happy you can SEE it growing (I kid you not)
5. Blackberry bushes not so slowly inching their way into my garden
6. Ivy doing it's best to race the blackberries to take over the flowers.
7. Rodents digging trenches in my yard, plant roots AND eating my tulip bulbs

As I was toiling away, dreaming of the day I would own a condo or be rich enough (or less cheap) and hire someone, when suddenly I realized I was hearing a flutter every time I was by my rhododendron and I thought......nest.....?

Right in the middle you can just barely see the mom on her nest!)

How awesome is that!  Between that and all this......

(This tree I've been trying to capture in a photo for weeks, but it's so much better in person!)

How could anyone be grouchy?? Well, except for Otto, he's looking a little grouchy. (I may have decided he wanted me to nap next to him and that might not have been true)

I did not ride my bike into this hole.

But I've certainly been thinking about it. Each and every day as I barrel down this hill on my bike at 6.15 in the morning, I get to this spot and suddenly remember to avoid this ever growing hole. This hole which would be exactly in the path I would ride my bike if I was just not quite awake one morning.  And each and every morning I think, man, it would suck to ride my bike into that hole with that slowly sinking cone.

For the two months or so the hole has been growing......

This afternoon this happened!

Tulips! (Wait, what...?)

Last fall, for the very first time in my life, I planted tulip bulbs. I was very excited at the idea of forgetting about them all winter and then without any work from me, getting beautiful flowers.

Here is the picture I posted on instagram at the time labeled 'spring tulips'!

Fast forward 6 months of patiently waiting.

What? Exact same spot (and no, those leaves in the middle are not tulips!). The question is where the @&$$(#*@ are my tulips!  

Here is the other spot I planted them!!  Not ONE tulip!

I even tried digging up where i planted them to see if maybe I planted them upside down and THE BULBS AREN'T EVEN THERE!  What? A rat?  A neighbor?  I am sure that somewhere there is a guilty tulip  thief who dug up my very valuable tulips bulbs in the dead of night. 

And speaking of tulips in the dead of night.

This is what everyone else's tulips look like right now.

But not to leave this blog on a downer note. Here is what Seattle looks like these days - take that midwesterners.

And to those of you non midwesterners, enjoy your tulips and be nice to me when I walk by your house drooling!