Good Times

We spent the weekend visiting family and I have to say it was a pretty excellent weekend. I got to hang out with Grandma Saturday while flower shopping. I don't get to do that enough, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

Meanwhile, I may have missed the Garden and Patio Show here in Jackson yesterday, but I did get to enjoy my own personal Butler Family Garden Show at Mom's house. I took a bunch of pictures of her first round of blooms before the battery in my camera died and hope to get a few of them up on Flickr tonight (done). I did manage a nice trunk-full of flowery goodness to bring home with me.

Mom hooked me up with several herbs from her garden as well as a pot of Granny Stuart violets (so named because they are from the ones my great-grandmother, Emma Stuart, grew in her yard that have been passed on through the generations). On our trip to Lowe's on Saturday Mom found the Encore azaleas that I want to plant this year and we examined them to decide which colors we wanted. I inquired as to the cost, so I could budget better for buying them later, and the incredibly nice lady told me that they were $9.99, but if I wanted to buy them that day she'd let me have them for $6.99. They were getting ready for their big spring shipment this week and were making deals on just about everything on the lot. Mom decided I needed a birthday present anyway and, since they were on sale, bought me four. Sweet. The bright red and yellow flowers are some we came across at Walmart and decided to get on a whim. We'd never seen anything quite like them and they were quite striking.

All in all, I'd say my own garden show turned out way better than the one here. I scored a bunch of free plants, and got personal lessons from two incredible gardeners. It was a good day.