Spring Forward.....!

Ready or Not.....

I am sure you will Think I have already shown you this, Dear Readers, because in a way, I have, but actually this is the Other Winter Lilac Shrub finally getting the buds painted! I am struggling to get caught up with all the steps I had completed on the Snowy Lilac shrub.... and of course, I thought it would be a quick little job to paint all those buds. It's not. Hours of carefully painting all those glue blobs .... it is so much easier to add them than to paint them! And believe it or not, they have two sides...! You think you have covered the whole bud blob... but if you turn the shrub, the back side is still just dried glue! And you have to reach into all the branches and only get the paint on the glue blob bud! And you have to be methodical and resist the temptation to just paint the next nearest one... that path is chaos. It is important to proceed one entire stem at a time so you don't overlook a single dried blob of glue! As I said, this is not a quick little step! And this weekend we even had one hour less Time because the Clocks had to change. But it is done! And it is the last shrub that will have painted buds!

Then I also needed to add the nest.... 

which still needed to be "aged".... 

here you can see it with the other two remaining nests,

 also getting their wash of brown paint.

Here I have added it to the shrub.... I know, 

it is hard to get a good picture.

I think the twigs confuse the camera.... 

it doesn't know where to focus.

I also started a serious study, Dear Readers, 

of the Time needed to produce

 the leafy stems for the Spring and Summer Shrubs.

 Above you can see the stems with twigs prior to adding the leaves.

 I estimate I will need four leafy stems per branch.... 

times roughly  thirty branches.....

 (the number of main branches on the shrubs)

 which totals about 120 leafy stems per shrub.

I have about thirty already made but not painted...

 which leaves about 90 left to produce.... 

and only nine weeks left till blossom time!

And my study determined that it takes roughly

 one half hour per leafy branch from beginning to end.

 

 

At ten branches per week, that takes five hours... 

 

 

in addition to the four or five hours needed for the blossom plan....

 Will there be enough time....?

                

 And speaking of Blossoms... here is blossom number Forty-seven!!!

 

 And in the Box!

(Even I am becoming impressed!)

But really I wanted to show you

 the Other Winter Lilac Shrub in The Folly Garden....

 I did not add any more snow to the shrub... 

(even though it snowed again on Sunday...)

Because at this time of year the snow is melting .....

And the minute the sun comes out .... 

all the snow is gone from the branches... 

even if it is still thick on the ground!

Those bare branches give us hope!

 

 I still have to add the suckers to this shrub.... 

and the fungus to the stumps.... 

and the lichen to the stems......

But I think I am making progress, Dear Readers,

Springing Forward....

Ready or Not!