More blooms

I was all set to brag about a fan letter I received at the Connection magazine office in tonight's blog. Yesterday, the art director let me know that there was a letter addressed to me at the office in care of the magazine, so I stopped in the office today, very curious to see who it was from and which story it was about. And if it was actually fan mail -- or perhaps hate mail from an angry reader.

Unfortunately, it was for a different story. I had humble pie for lunch. Oh, well!

It's chilly today, and we had some rain, but there was a short window of sunshine. Baxter and I took full advantage of it and took a walk. I even remembered to bring the camera and snapped a few photos. Gotta love the Ozarks!

This is the first coneflower that's "bloomed" in my garden. It's a little bit early in the season, or at least that's what I told myself -- it's kind of a sad, scraggly little thing:

Sad, huh?

The Cosmos is coming up awesome. This is the first year I've planted it -- and I am definitely planting even more next year! Here's what the mature seedlings look like:

I've also solved the mystery of "what IS that?" from this spring. I had about four plants sprout up in the garden & could not figure out what they were. I hadn't seen this plant sprout in my garden before, and I hadn't planted anything new in the fall. Now that the flowers have bloomed, I figured out it was a bachelor's button! I planted those seeds eons ago and they have finally thrived. Crazy plants.

And, finally, the clematis is flourishing this year! I cannot wait for it to bloom. With my luck, it will explode with blooms when I am on my Memorial Day weekend getaway!