Spring?

 The weather has been amazing the last week and my kids have all enjoyed the freedom of Papa & Grandma's big yard.  They have played outside for hours and come in tired, dirty, and very happy. The freedom to explore is so good for kids and is one of the things that I will miss the most when (and if? JK Mom!!!) we move back to our place. I desperately long for a place to live where my kids can play outside.  But this post is not about that....... this post is about the weather and what it has resulted in. :o) The last 2 days my girls have brought me flowers!!! FLOWERS IN FEBRUARY?!?!?!?  They have brought me daffodils, periwinkle,salmonberry flowers, crocus, rhododendron (or azalea? not sure), and an extremely fragrant little group of flowers that I have never seen before. They grow on a small bush (according to the flower pickers), they blossoms look and smell like jasmine but the flowers are a dark pinkish-purple on the outside of the petals and a very pale shade of the same on the inside. The blossoms grow in round cluster on the end of stems, no leaves came with the flowers........  Does jasmine come in colors?  My Grandma often had jasmine plants when I was growing up but the flowers were larger, always white, and the plant was more viney than shrubby.  The stems of "my" flowers were thicker and stiff like a shrub and not viney at all.  Anyhow, I was/am thrilled with their gifts and can't believe that we are already getting flowers!!! I guess it has been a mild winter over all.......  The problem is that all of this sunshine and flowers makes me start dreaming of a garden and I am not sure where to put one! :o)  I really want raised beds but that is just going to have to wait until we have a better and more permanent housing situation.