Peter Cottontail and all his rabbit friends have made there way from the attic to the  bays, corners, halls & tables of CTG’s. We have over 200 bunnies on display along with a extensive collection of Lenox eggs, bunny figurines & baskets. The place is overflowing with eggs and Easter grass. It seems every year when the boxes go to the attic those darn bunnies do what bunnies do naturally and they seem to multiply. It doesn’t help that I keep bringing them into the house via shopping bags. HaHaHa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We have gotten plenty of use out of the white Christmas tree. It is now adorned with pink lights making it the Easter tree. We have bunnies, ducks, eggs, carrots, crosses, garland made of carrots and of course a few lenox ornaments. What would a holdiay be without Lenox. We will be making our annual trip to the Broadway Market for that butter lamb, rye bread, chocolate covered strawberries, cannolies, ham & homemade polish sausage. Yum !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is such a fun day. Tomorrow we will be filling the house with lillies, hyacinths and primrose. Fresh flowers bring such wonderment & delight to the home. Not to mention that wonderful aroma from the hyacinths. It is a beautiful thing.

We have started spring cleanup in the gardens the red garden has been raked and the lilly beds cleaned up. The driveway garden is also cleaned up and ready for spring. The bulbs are busting through and the greenery is getting greener  everyday. We have again installed fencing with smaller holes this time to keep those darn rabbits out. They were reaking havoc on the tulip greens. We have solidified some new plans for the garden. We will adding a walk through pergola that will pass through the vegetable beds. We haven’t decided what vine we will planting on it yet. We are going to be removing some of perennials from the formal beds and adding some more bushes/greenery this year. Trying to cut down on the amount of annuals that will be planted. It just seems like there is so much to do and so little time we figured this is one way to keep planting to a minimum.  We have one more light post to install and we will be adding some additional lighting to the front shade garden. We are currently working on the antique doors that will be installed in the garage as a new entry way. This project is coming along nicely and will be just wonderful when complete. I have been scouting out CL for some new pieces for the entryway. Nothing has quite hit me yet but I am sure I will find something.

With spring upon us and all the work that has to take place outside we won’t be doing much inside. Our time will be focused on the gardens. I am going to begin the painting process on those jumbo leaf castings. I have some wonderful ideas so stay tuned, I will be posting some pics as I work through the process. The  next few months will be spent playing in dirt, creating a beautiful landscape &  hopefully getting in shape from the winter hibernation. Not looking forward to all those leg squats, deep knee bends & the endless trips of walking to the greenhosue. Yippie Spring is Sprung !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  TTFN

We had a very special visitor this past week at CTG’s. Flat Stanley traveled from Robert Morris School in  Batavia via his magic envelope to CTG’s. He had a fun time learning about Victorian Teas. He actually got to read two books about Victorian Teas and had his picture taken with our giant teapot.  He enjoyed seeing all the different teapots, teacups and all the little tchochkes that are scattered about the tea room. We enjoyed his visit and hope he sends along friends to visit too. Stanley  would like all the little girls out there to think about having their birthday party tea  here at CTG’s. Thank-you Stanley for visiting us and come again soon.

May the luck of the Irish be with everyone who reads this. The leprechauns are out and about the celtic music is playing and the wearing of the green is upon us. Even if your not Irish St.Patrick’s Day is a wonderful day of happiness and cheer. We have added a new St. Patrick’s Day tree to the village setup this year. It is very festive and of course “Green”.  The table is dressed with all kinds of adornments. As we swing through March in anticipation of the Easter Season we can begin to smell spring in the air. We have marched (no pun intended) right into another project here at CTG’s. We are ready for the renovation to begin in the garage. This will gives us more much needed storage space and a little sprucing up to the entry way. Can’t wait till it is done and hopefully it will  be as beautiful as I planned.  Who doesn’t need more storage. I am beginning to equate storage with my close friend Craiglist. HaHaHaHa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Found a great little chandelier ( of course, Craiglist ) that I am going to convert to a teacup chandelier. Wish me well, I have never drilled into china before but I am going to give it a whirl. I have a couple odd pieces I will attack first in case they explode and shatter all over on me. But I like the idea of doing it myself thanks A.L. you encouraged me on that one.

With the garden season pounding on our door there are still plenty of decisions to be made regarding the gardens. We have decided to move the giant watering can into the driveway garden to give it more exposure. We are going to revamp this garden a little bit pulling out some bushes and also some perennials. We would like it to be a little more guests friendly. Perhaps put a walkthrough in to connect the 2 driveways. We will be adding some additional lighting in the back formal garden. We are going to  be spotlighing the willows. We think this give a great look on a breezy evening . Those trees just seem to dance in the breeze so lighting them will definetly add a component of beauty to them. We are still thinking about the annuals that will be planted in the larger beds this year haven’t quite decided what we will use. We have some other plans lurking in our minds but those require alot of work and we promised no big projects this year. But wait we are working on a big project right now the garage. See how quickly things change here. So one ever knows what will happen next.  We have some pretty big events taking place this summer here in the gardens and we are excited about them.

As the plans progress and the work gets done I will be downloading some new pics. Stayed tuned for those. I will also begin work on the painting process of the giant leaf castings that took 3 people to move off the deck. Man, those things are heavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvy.  But I can’t wait to see them painted. I will post pics of them also and perhaps the process of the painting will a good topic for the blog.

Well, dinner is calling and I think I have summed things up for another month. So TTFn, Think Spring, it is coming.