After a very disappointing winter (not very cold) there are some great flowers blooming at the homestead.

This our new meyer lemon tree that is blooming. Its in a giant pot in the back of the yard. We have a ponderosa lemon tree that would have been one year old in March. It may have succumbed to the very little freezing we had this year. Only time will tell.
I’m not a big fan of lettuce really. Its ok in salads I guess but who knew growing it could be so neat. I love the pop of color it gives to the planter. This is Iceburg lettuce.

These purple and pink flowers are some bulbs that we planted before winter started. I know we planted tulips and something else. I just cant remember what that something else is. I know these aren’t tulips though.
These little red flowers are new. We got them from Lowe’s last weekend. They are Dianthus which is a different type of Carnation. Im glad we got these because we’ve had such great luck growing Carnations.

The Johnny Jump-ups did really well over the winter and provided color all year. They share a planter with the carnations that we grew from seed. 
The Carnations overflow from this pot. They are the ones we grew from seed and they wintered well producing different color flowers all year long. I highly recommend them.

A closeup of the carnations. At any given time there will be red, white, multi-colored and yellow carnations all blooming from this plant at the same time. They also do nicely as cut flowers in the house.
I had really bad luck with growing hydrangeas before. They just couldn’t take our Texas heat. These flowers bewitch me, and I’m trying again. This time I’ve placed them on our back patio where there is only morning sun and I will do my best to protect them from the heat. They are just so pretty.
I don’t know if you recall, but I had about 7 different knitting projects on the needles at the start of new year. Now I’m down to three. I’m very excited about this. I hope to be down to one shawl and then I will allow myself to cast on for something new. The latest finished object is Gamut (pictured below). The pattern is Show off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell.
This is the yarn I used. I got this yarn from a Ravelry De-Stash. I was thinking this yarn is nothing but trouble but I had to have it. Here is how it looked in the skein.
It turned into these socks that I love. The colorway is Gamut and its Strong Sock by Another Crafty Girl.
I love these socks. The pattern went well with the colors. No bizarre pooling just multi colored loveliness. I don’t know much about dying yarn but to me this colorway is genius. This is what I’m looking for in variegation. The only problem I had with my knitting was laddering. I knit this pattern on two circular needles and every other row you have to start with a yarn-over which you pull over two stitches. Starting with that yarn-over caused the laddering that is very evident in the sock on the left in the above picture. That hasn’t diminished my love of these socks. I thought about giving them away but I just couldn’t bear the thought.
In other crafty news I’m finishing up another quilt so I hope to post about that soon. I know spring weather isnt showing up everywhere so to all you people in other parts of the world enduring dismal weather I hope things brighten up for you soon! Keep warm in your knits.