Thursday, March 4, 2021

Surprise Blooms and Voles......


 My cactus is blooming.  It is late but anytime it wants to bloom it is welcomed. The net tells me that this is called a Thanksgiving cactus because of its leaf shape and not a Christmas cactus. I have been ignoring the plant and watering it very little.  It sits closely among plants over in a corner so it did like the conditions. 


It has lots more buds so I am not watering it very much. The bloom takes a few days to get fully opened. 


It make look like a nice pattern but it is the burrowing of voles. I had them last year and did get rid of them because my neighbor trapped them.  I must have a new infestation of them. I haven't found the flower garden in which they have set up camp but when the snow goes away I will find out where they were.  I have some vole poison that I did put out but I think it was too late for me to do that. 


I looked to see if the voles were in this garden and I didn't see a trail going to it. They eat roots of grass ans also tubers of flowers. The ate up and destroyed all of my blazing star flowers last winter.  I dread seeing what these voles decided to eat. I have never had voles before until we moved here. It is a different kind of land than where I lived before.  Old coal mines are in the area and the timber does have creeks flowing through them so it is more natural here.  We don't live that close to the wild areas but they are less than a quarter mile from us. I figure that is why we have voles and chipmunks.  


In the next few warm days this should be all gone.  Of course we could get another snow storm but for now it is good to see it gone.


The wren house is all ready as it hangs in my pussy willow tree. I  use to have it closer to the house underneath the old deck.  I may move it today as it was fun watching them raise birds in it. 

It won't be so warm today but it will still be melting out there. I am glad that another month and we will be out of winter.  Thanks for stopping by today.

3 comments:

The Great Ethan Allen said...

Ha! I love your "Vole Pattern" Those little buggers have my garden area all "mazed up" and their tunnels are now revealed since the snow has receded. I'm not mad at them for digging up my garden area. The chipmunks do the same thing.. and occasionally eat a tomato! Bu the cats catch them.. IF the Chippers are lucky, they will survive long enough for me to save them. But the Voles are so fragile that, unless I "help" the cat catch one.... I rarely get there in time to save them. Luckily, there are so many of them around here that the population is not effected.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Darn voles anyways, they seem to like your tasty roots! Enjoy the snow melting weather!

Laurel Wood said...

Hello Larry and Della, I had Voles at the home I shared with mother. They are so destructive. Your cactus blooms are lovely. It is nice that your snow is melting, glad you both could get your vaccines, I wish you both a nice weekend. Mildred