Spring flowers, spring skirts, spring broccoli

Some really spectacular shrubs flower in my garden this time of year. This one we call the Burning Bush:
And this is the flowering currant; I actually have three dotted around, in varying shades of pink.
I picked some to put with a few tulips and random leftovers from a gift bouquet; I missed having flowers in my house over winter! And speaking of tulips--I think they have doubled in number from last spring. The past two years I've divided them and I need to divide them again this year. When I do so, I take them to a new un-tuliped part of the garden. If this multiplying continues, I won't have anywhere left for transplanting.
I've been busily sewing myself two new skirts. Both from the same pattern, different views. This first is some light wool with self-made piping. This wool is actually the same as I used to back Franklin's quilt. The piping is from an old cotton sheet; I'm very pleased with it. The skirt also has a zipper and a button in the back, and an invisible hem which sits about an inch above my knee. The waistband is cut on the bias.
The second skirt is some cute printed corduroy. The front panel creates a faux wrap-around that sits right at my knee. It has an invisible zipper (actually invisible, too! unlike previous attempts) and a hook and eye in back. The material and button have both been in my stash for at least four years--about time I used it.
I've also been hard at work planting more seeds, and the remaining 3.5 kg of seed potatoes. All potatoes bar about 12 are planted in grow sacks; I ran out of both sacks and extra soil, so the last few went in the ground. Still have lots of seed planting to continue with over the course of this month and the next.

And the first of my purple sprouting broccoli harvest. I'm going to be very vigilant and not let it go to seed this year; if there's too much for us to eat, I'll pick and freeze. All winter long I've been looking forward to this!