SPRING IS COMING!!!!!

My calendar says spring is coming but I've had little evidence of it (and I think some of you may feel the same way).  Thursday, however, we decided to take matters into our own hands.  It's time to pretty-up and spring-summer-up our balconies.

No car will take us and no Calloways will greet us with all their various flowers and plants.  David remembered seeing a hardware store of sorts somewhere near us as we have walked but couldn't remember exactly where (seriously?????).  I had a torture-treatment (not really) at the Chiro early and he met me there after his early morning men's Bible study.

It took us a while but we did find the store he had in mind and they did have the wire racks and flower boxes and dirt (and spade!!) we needed to spring-up our balcony and the two Juliet balconies.  What we hadn't considered (we're not Parisians yet obviously!!!!) was getting all this back to the apartment!!!!  You can't just toss it in the back of the SUV or in the trunk of your car.  You have to carry it!!!!  Duh!!!!  Remember, we do have the little "old lady" cart for going to the marche but, of course, we hadn't thought of it.  Like I said, we're not Parisians yet.  They would have known to bring it.  And so we packed it up and carried it home...not without a couple of stops along the way to reorganize!

Though easier in a car, there was something  Parisian about  walking home

At least it was a beautiful, sunny day though pretty cool!  And, too, while we were searching for the store we "had" to stop at a crepe stand and share a Nutella/banana crepe which gave us strength to carry!!!!!

Once home we decided to go the darling floral shop at the end of the street.  They always have beautiful flowers outside their store which we see all the time going to and from the apartment.  We assumed they would be pricier than say a Calloways, but I haven't seen a place like that..at least not in the city.  But there are lots of florists.  We decided to make this our place and walked down, found some beautiful, large red geraniums and walked away with ten for our boxes.  The man there was very kind and planted two of them in one of our boxes for us!  Of course, our sunny day had ended and before we could leave the shop, it began to pour (I mean POUR) down rain. So we stayed there for ten minutes or so then took our pretty flowers home where they were temporarily placed in the living room so we could have a late lunch (which we seem to do a lot here).

Once we'd had lunch, David (my personal gardener!!) took care of planting the flowers.  It's never as easy as you think, and one of the boxes wouldn't work on the Juliet balcony (the dining room) because of the iron railings.  Argghhhhh!!!!!  So instead of two flowers in each box, he put three in each box so they're really full and fabulous!  We're talking about what to do with the dining room because we see it every time we sit at the table and eat, which is pretty much breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I want something pretty there.  Maybe I'll just  get an asparagus fern or something like that and put it inside.  That would work and I like what a plant does to a room.  But at the end of the day, our outdoor spaces look ready to welcome Spring, when it decides to come!!!!

Bienvenue le printemps!!!

(As a postscript, geraniums will bloom here until October or November and then can stay alive but not blooming through the winter-depending on how cold it gets!  Yea!)