April showers bring......

Phew!  I just had a scary few minutes.  Technology did bite today!  My computer screen kept blinking out and going black.  The Tramp looked it up and it's apparently a known problem with the video card.  That's a relief.  I'm not in any danger of bad stuff like losing data, though we'll have to take it in to Apple for repair.  A bummer, but not fatal.  :-)

Today we took a drive to the State Farmers Market in Raleigh.  Maybe it's the holiday weekend and the dull weather.  Both today and yesterday it seemed like absolutely everyone was out shopping!  Roads, parking lots and stores were as bad as Christmas.  The farmer's market was jammed with people, produce, and plants.   I spent a healthy amount of time drooling over the flora.  There were so many people with cameras!  I suppose some of them were visiting family for the holiday and couldn't resist the photo op.  It looked so fun and touristy.  :-)  Next time I won't be shy about taking my good camera shopping with me.

On the way home we spotted the Jelly Belly bus!  I didn't catch the logo on the car.  It looks familiar but I can't place it.  (I found a photo!  It's the Sunkist Fruit Gems car.  They were at the Lollipop Shop of Raleigh.)

We bought a double pink knockout rose at the market and planted it by the mailbox.  I added soil and compost to the hole but you can see the big chunks of North Carolina red clay.

We moved the yellow Lady Banks rose to the back yard and I also removed the bricks around the garden.  I'll list them on Freecycle and maybe they will be gone tomorrow.

We tried not to damage the poor Lady Banks rose too much.  I'm hoping with the addition of sturdy trellising it will grow up to shade our porch and deck from the afternoon summer sun.  Fingers crossed.

The clematis by the mailbox is going to bloom.  I can't wait to see what variety it is.

Despite the brown water, when the sun came out late this afternoon there were some nice clear reflections.

The house is disappearing behind summer green.  :-)  When the time comes to paint the house I was thinking of a nice Wedgewoody green.  Then it will truly disappear!

And today the mystery flowers started to bloom in the garden.  They're primroses!  I knew they were familiar!

And in amongst them are strawberries.  In fact, while I was mowing the lawn, there were small red strawberries all over the place.  Maybe I'll dig some out and put them in a pot.  I'd rather they weren't overrunning the gardens.  I also found mint.  That'll take over too.

And I happened to be standing still at the right moment when Mr. Bluebird landed on his house.  There are five eggs now!!

I tried to quickly change the camera setting before he flew off but I missed.  I stood awhile waiting but he didn't come back.  Maybe tomorrow.  :-)