It's only just begun...

 What a week it was around here last week.  It was very full of field trips (one for each girl on the same day and I drove on both!), a school choir concert, sports and ballet and my husband's surgery.  I knew there would be no time outside during that week and since the weather wasn't that great I didn't miss much.  My husband did amazingly well with his surgery and while he rested and recuperated over the weekend I played out in the sunny yard.  Saturday I spend working in the front yard and Sunday was spent around the pond.

 I scooped and scooped out the pond, cleaned the filter, trimmed the plants and cleaned off the waterfall.  It looks so much better.  Unfortunately this is string algae's favorite time of year and it has just taken off.  I spend much of the spring scooping it out of the pond.  I just love that our neighbors Forsythia is right where we can enjoy it.  The gold Mock Orange's leaves and daffodils pop with it in the background.

 Marsh marigold has been blooming for weeks, but now that the pot has been cleaned up the flowers can actually be seen.

 I put the pond floats back in.  The one in the middle is new this year, I bought it at the Flower and Garden show.

 This may not look like much now, but I spent a long time getting the purple oxalis up from next to the edgers.  I also cut the dead branches off the Daphne 'Summer Ice' and transplanted an offshoot from it.  It isn't variegated but otherwise looks the same.  Those Violas have been blooming almost all winter.

 Cleaned up the edges here too.  I love how the shed garden looks in spring, lots more to come here too.

 You can see this Ribes sanguineum 'Kind Edward VII' in the previous picture to the right.  This one has grown so quickly.

 Okay, so I lied when I said I got nothing down outside last week.  I added a long shelf in the shed and made a shorter one on top of the two clay pots.  I've been having fun "decorating" and organizing.  One day I'd love to paint it white inside.

 A view out of the shed.

 The path garden is starting to fill in.  I'd like to focus on this area this year.  I'm trying to convince my husband to remove the deck, so far he has agreed to taking off the far half.  I would prefer a stone patio and no deck at all.  But I guess he should have some say in how our garden looks.

 At the end of last summer I pulled up a currant bush that looked horrible and moved the Winter Hazel and Bleeding Heart to new places here.  I was wondering how the Winter Hazel would do this spring and it seems to be blooming better than it ever has.

 Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup' has the most delicate butter yellow flowers.

 The Littlest Gardener is thrilled to see Grape Hyacinths popping up.  This is one flower I allow her to pick all she wants.  We seem to have them coming up everywhere and they look so cute in spring bouquets.

 One of the few Daffodils that returned.  Other than Tete-a-tetes I give up on Daffodils.  They either send up only foliage or the squirrels take them.

So, the spring flower show has begun along with a little bit of warmer temperatures.  I'm really excited to see the changes that seem to happen overnight this time of year.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.