Green or Purple Thumb?

We had to get back a little early from Logan because a member or our ward died and the family asked Lance to dress her, sing a duet with Kempton, and direct the funeral. It was still a perfect mini vacation plus coming home a little early gave me a chance to get a head start on yard work. We haven't lived in a house since our first year of marriage so it's been a long time since I've had to dig in the dirt. We're living in Lance's grandmother's house because it is vacant and she's been in a nursing home for about four years now. Nobody has lived in it since, therefore there's A LOT of yard work to do.

I grew up on a farm in Jerome and I'm no stranger to pulling weeds, moving pipe, feeding all the animals, and LOTS of canning after harvest. I have to be honest, it felt REALLY good to be outside and get dirty! It was almost therapeutic really, although I wouldn't say that too loud. Dirt under my fingernails, dirt in my nose, dirt on my arms which made me think I was starting to tan (until I looked real closely), and yucky dirty hair. I mostly raked up all the dead leaves and branches and pulled weeds. There's so much to be done, I only finished the south side and half of the front side of the house. If you came and looked at it now, it wouldn't be anything spectacular because there's still so much to do but at least I can tell a difference.

In the back yard there are a lot dead(?) trees/shrubs so my question is, are they really dead or still hibernating from winter? I don't know and I don't want to get too carried away and start pulling everything out but it looks sad all dead and brown. Thank goodness I had a new pair of gloves to try out because my hands are purple and raw after all the pulling and raking and shoveling. I'm glad no blisters are in sight. Yet.

I was excited to see that we have tons of tulips all around the house and the ones by the front door are coming up nicely. As soon as they bloom I'll be sure to post a picture. When we lived in Charleston Lance gave me a little packet of Edelweiss seeds because we're so in love with the movie The Sound of Music. I have no idea how to grow them but nonetheless I did plant them today. The seeds are so tiny they look like weavel which means I'm not getting my hopes up or expecting anything to bloom.

My sister is a landscape design major so I'll have to ask her which flowers to buy that are very low in maintenance and can grow with any type of rookie gardner like me. Anybody have ideas?

The first flower of the season came up by the tulips but I don't think it's a tulip. Whatever kind of blossom it is, it made me smile.