Last year this pair of owls lost their nest in the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado. Owls reuse their nest every year, they don't build their own. This old magpies nest was just down the street about 2 blocks, in front of a Walgreens drug store. They're about 9' off the ground and attracting a lot of local attention. They were used to living amongst people and having a lot of locals watching them......buuuuuuuuuuuut now there's a TV news crew in front of the nest 24/7. People have been seen trying to climb the tree and get their point 'n shoot cameras closer.....the Walgreens cashier will stop everything to RUN out and shout at people climbing the tree.....:0) What a circus!!!!! :0)

Welcome back. What a great story behind your Tulip Festival. I think seeing tremendous numbers of tulips is quite thrilling. The colors are so amazing!! Here is my tulip contribution. Some yellow tulips I got for my birthday one year. Another advantage to having an April birthday!! :)

Kittywhiskers, great puzzle.....I have one of seed packets here to do, but it has a lot more color variation in the picture, so I am sure will be easier than yours was. My lone Peony bush was planted in the mid 1920's according to the lady that we bought this building site from. It was one of many bushes here that my daughter dug up and saved from the construction site. Daughter has the rest in her gardens. Peonies are tough!

A story about an iron weed plant. DD and I had been watching one in bloom in a road right of way. One day she phoned me that the city mowers were approaching it. Jumped in my car and drove about 5 miles just in time to plant myself in front of the approaching tractor. The driver stopped and allowed me to dig it up with a tiny shovel that I had in my car. It lived and grew quite tall for about 3 years and then disappeared. To my surprise I have 2 volunteers this spring a couple of years since the original one went to plant heaven.