A good day in the garden

This winter was hard on marginally-hardy plants. The rosemary is definitely dead, and today's exploration revealed that both crape myrtles, the orange thyme, and at least one butterfly bush died during the snowy months. The roses are looking pitiful, even after all the obviously-dead stuff being cut out, and my beloved "Madame Isaac Periere" is showing not a single sign of life. The lavender (all fifteen or so plants) may also have frozen or drowned--sigh. 

But--

• The neighborhood dogwoods have scattered LOTS of babies around the yard, so one of the dead crape myrtles was replaced with a three-foot volunteer, and the volunteer on the edge of the compost area has grown nearly as tall as I am--in four years!
• What had looked like a single enormous caryopteris (misplaced near the burgundy physocarpus, where its breathtaking blue clashed with "Coppertina") turned out to have become a clonal colony, so the roots were untangled and the plants moved to various parts of the yard. The few remaining yews may get replaced with butterfly-friendly subshrubs in a cool color sorely needed in August.
• The pulmonaria in the driveway bed have bloomed,
  
  along with a "Blue Moon" phlox purchased for a dollar from the nearly-dead-plant rack at Lowe's.
  
• The daffodils not only survived but bloomed and are spreading in a most satisfying way.
  
  
  
  
• A pair of red-shouldered hawks may be nesting in the neighborhood.
• The other birds courting in the yard include grackles, goldfinches, robins, and cardinals.
• Chickadees are everywhere.

And--the red-bellied woodpecker is back!
Altogether a most satisfying day on Chipmunk Ridge.