Really, my wife is outdoing herself. Yes, I help but I just clean up for her! Yesterday I had to climb up on our roof to repair some siding that had come loose during storms. So I wasn't doing much yard work. But, I am recording her work and here's another installment.
Here's the walk next to the garage:



Some close ups of the peonies. But where are the ants?:





Close up of the Japanese lilac flowers. An interesting tree; the leaves are out long before the flowers which usually appear in June.



And the whole tree:



A rose bush on the side of the house. Behind it is a clematis with a morning glory growing thru it. I'll get closer-ups of that later.



And an amazing number of buds:



And then I go to sweep up the gutter and I find this:



I'm going to transplant it today.

Glorious! What part of the country is this?

Metro Detroit. Doing what we can to help

Well, your wife has a lot to be proud of there. And that spoon-and-fork trellis (in the second photo) is cool, too!

Well, for a while she was welding and that was one of her first projects. She wants to get back to it eventually but as busy as she has been it won't be soon. I got an instant darkening welding helmet for her on Valentines Day and the women in her office were bragging about their flowers and chocolates and she said, "That's nothing! I got a welding helmet!".

That's really pretty, all of that green and flowers.

It looks like a nice neighborhood too. Has Detroit been making some sort of comeback?

Not Detroit, Pontiac. And no, we are holding on by our teeth-trying to keep it from getting worse. We have a financial manager and the police department was merged with the county and the fire department was absorbed by next-door Waterford. I posted a little ago about a serious dog neglect/mistreatment problem behind us that only adds to a worsening of the situation and property values that are bad enough with no end in sight. Part of this is that we can't leave anyway so we better make the best of it. We do love our house; our street was built in the '20s and '30s.
BUT! We have a great street in that everyone knows everyone, we sit on each others porches and have a beer, we have block parties and if anyone needs a hand it's there to help. We are trying to keep our area somewhat stable and so far (with a few exceptions) we're hanging in there.

Seems a little late for lilacs . . . they're all bloomed out here.
I like the "happy" color arrangements in the flower boxes.

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Seems a little late for lilacs . . . they're all bloomed out here.
I like the "happy" color arrangements in the flower boxes.

I haven't researched it so I don't know if it's a true lilac. Our regular everyday lilacs bloomed a while ago too.

Looks like June-July is the appropriate bloom time for the Japanese Tree Lilac:
[www.naturehills.com]
It's in the genus Syringa, as are the more common variaties, so I guess you would have to consider it a "true" lilac.
My camera is downstairs and only one garden pic uploaded to the mac . . .

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That last pic of the gutter is pretty nice.

That would make a cool 16x20 print.

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You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

The lushness is comforting. The work has paid off. Now you're wallowing in beauty.

They're in color again, not BW!