Winds of Great Strength......

 It has been a very cloudy day with very strong winds.  One can sit and watch the clouds moving across the sky like they are in a race. 

I shot this from my deck above to give me my red bud photo for the day.  When the leaves start to sprout the flower petals will fall to the ground. 

The rose bouquet purchased on April 15th is now a dried flower arrangement.  The quality of the rose was different as they didn't shed their petals as they died back to nothing.

I tried to get a shot of the delicate pink blooms on this oxalis.  The photo ends up being one of a outdoor mat being the predominate center of interest. 

The pussy willow branches are starting to root.  I had to place the pot of branches outside that they started to smell.  I guess I could change the water but this was easier.  Our Sunday has been a quiet one inside but the wind noise has been going on for most of the day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday's Stuff

 A new young male cardinal at the feeder which has yet to turn completely red.  It was very nervous as it was exploring the whole feeder setup. I was glad I was quick with the camera.

 

It needs to go.  My neighbor Gary would have a fit if he saw this.  I will get to it before it starts to seed. 

It is not done.  It is in progress as the mouldings need to be added to secure the panels and I have to go to the lumberyard to buy some quarter round pieces.  The trellis are being held into place with white string temporarily.  

It is raining here this afternoon and all work has been stopped.  Time to rest for a couple of days.  This project seemed to beat me up a lot with all that was involved to get things assembled.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday.....

 My seeing young morning doves at the feeder caused me to look it up on the net.  A pair of morning doves can start nesting in late February and early March.  The net said that a pair could hatch out four or five batches in one summer.   The article I read joked about how they build a flimsy nest in a morning and start laying eggs in the afternoon. The nests are so flimsy that they could lose a few eggs or babies frequently and it paid for them to have many tries at hatching out birds. 

Some workman has wrecked havoc on patio the past few days.  Tools, soil in bags, mulch, buckets and painted eight foot poles are all in the mix.  The screens and stuff had to be moved so I could work on my trellis project.  When I get the job done it will be all cleared, cleaned up.

This is a view of a trial fitting.  I have four posts now installed, two posts removed and replaced at a higher position to make every one level at the top.  I did battle with one pole again as it was bolted in and seemed to be crooked enough to keep me from trial fitting a trellis.  I have used a three foot level on everything too many times but I do now thin I have it mastered.  I have a couple of more days of work in order to have the job finished. 

It is warming up enough now that we have to have the air on to cool us off at some point in the afternoon or to cool the house down before going to bed.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things.....

 

 

 

 

 

Sunny Sunrise.....

 

The sun was actually behind the big pine tree this morning.  I had to walk out on the deck and go to the end of the deck to be able to see it coming up today.

 

 My white ruffled tulips are partially open. I can seem to find the optimum time of the day to get a good shot.  The shadow of my body gives me a better shot that the bright sun would do. Notice the grape hyacinth and creeping phlox in the background.

It is funny how the camera screws up everything when you tip it. The tree does stand straight and if I corrected that the flower box in the back would look really strange.  This is yesterday's shot of the tree.  I am behind taking photos as I went to the Ace Hardware this morning.   I bought one board, eight foot long, some lag screws, mulch and raised bed soil.  It was a full car when I was done.  

I painted on my heavy poles this morning giving the four, four by fours, eight foot long, a coat of paint on all sides, twice. They are getting ready to be assembled in my trellis project.  Photos to come if it doesn't look too stupid.  I mentioned before that what I designed on paper looks pretty awkward in reality.  We will see if it is a success or failure.  Old age is helping me to doubt my skills anymore.   It is a decent day today even though it isn't extremely warm.  It was good enough temps to work outside in the yard. I saw two of my neighbors next door, northwest, out doing things in their garden and I heard my neighbor to the southeast making noises on a project I have yet to identify it   I may never know.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Tulip Power....

 The tulips are opening up and the peonies are sprouting up also.  It is the part of spring that makes me smile as I like all of the blooms.  I get discouraged with this garden that my previous owner started.  I have made it my own by removing a lot of his things and adding the tulips and an iris. It is hard to keep the grass out and sometimes I just feel like letting the yard take it over by removing the garden liner. 

The creeping phlox is now in full bloom.  It has really spread in the six years that I have lived here. 

The white and red version of this Rembrandt tulip is not opened yet but these yellow ones are holding their own.  It is still cold out there and in many ways it is making these flowers last a lot longer. 

The peonies in the back yard are looking good again this year.  They were all transplanted from my old place to here in the last four or five years.  It is a solid planting now with the five bushes filling out and making a good row of foliage.  It will be a lot of weeks before they bloom. 

We are cloudy again today with it being in the low 40°s F. I am going to wait for it to dry out and mow around ten o'clock.  My grass is really tall in some places and I will still need to bundle up at that time. 

I have a big project going on with the new trellis that I bought.  I am not happy with the plans that I had for it and having to rethink the design.  I have four eight foot timbers to paint white and then I will figure out how I am going to do the design again since my one on paper is not going to work.  I hate it when  I plan and it is not what I imagine when I get the real pieces of the puzzle. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Morning is Broken......

 

As the days get to be longer the sun keeps shifting in this photo.  The tilting change of the earth should help us to warm up pretty soon.

 

 

 The clouds hung around for part of the morning but it has cleared. It will warm up today.  I did get the front yard mowed this morning wearing a parka. 

The red bud tree still looks good.  It hasn't started to drop blooms at this point.  It is always sad to see the pink all scattered on the grass below. 

I went out to see the Northern Lights display.  We can't see it in town but all the rural areas are readily seeing great colors.  I saw this instead hanging too close to a street light and a roof top below.  If I waited another hour I could probably get a better shot but I went to bed as it was already close to midnight.  This moon shape is always used in nursery stories and different things happen to the moon holding liquids or giving elves a place to sit. 

I took a trip to the lumber yard today to buy parts for my new trellis display.  I need time to work out the details as no job every seems to be easy.  I will just sit on the project and do the numbers on paper to figure it all out.  Thanks for stopping by today.

 

New Mourning Doves......

 The closeup shot makes it look bigger than it really is.  Our mourning dove pair have hatched out three new ones just recently.  The young ones are smaller but will probably be the same size as adults in a couple of weeks. 

The bird on the left is one of the newly hatched ones.  They were scurrying around on the deck looking for fallen nyjer thistle seed from the sock earlier. 

It looks more like a mob now rather than a thoughtfully placed display of colored glass.  I will remove some of them and put them back on the storage rack in the garage.  The vases are nice to have ready for any flowers I can cut and bring inside. 

I watched a gardening show yesterday and the guy showed all the variety of pots one could buy for flowers.  It inspired me to get mine out and see what I could do with them this summer.  I have one that I replanted and older begonia into for it to revive. I have three large square ones in the storage shed also that I bought on a very cheap sale six or seven years ago.  I think they were two bucks a piece.

I had this dumb cane in a large pot and it was time to cut it all off and throw away all the roots and dead stems.  It freed up a big pot for planting outside. I am hoping they will root and I can get a new start of the plant again.  It is one of those plants that gets to leggy and tall and then it all falls down looking pretty sad at most. 

I bought this for yellow goldfinches.  I haven't seen any.  If it is like last year, I had a couple for about three days and then they were gone.  I still blame the development of a large meadow that was turned into houses causing us to lose some of our special kinds of birds.  I have photos from our first years here with chickadees, lots of goldfinch, and other smaller birds other than sparrows. It was said that deer lived in that meadow also.  It was just a block south of us and now it is filled with rows of tall houses.  Some are three stories in height when you count the exposed basements. 

We are having a quiet Sunday.  The sunshine looks good but it isn't that warm yet. I hope everyone has a restful day which I am planning on doing. Thanks for checking in today.

Stuff for Saturday

 

Friday evening we had a downpour of graupel.   Graupel is defined as small particles of snow with a fragile crust of ice; soft hail. It falls like large rain drops and it is a thick looking precipitation.  This Saturday morning we had snow.  It covered everything but was gone by noon. None of our weather including strong winds hasn't damaged any of our flowers.

The robin was out from its nest looking for things to eat.  I don't think it has babies hatched yet.  The metal quail was a gift from our former owner. 

Maybe some of you have seen photos of male cardinals handing seed with their beaks to the female.  My wife saw him do it for a couple of time but I dind't get  photo of it. I assume that they are for sure mated and hopefully a nest is going to be nearby. 

The female did come earlier by herself to the feeder.  She has nice red markings on her and a very colorful beak. 

It is very cold so the birds do chose to come to the feeder to eat.  The brown headed cowbird returned by itself yesterday. I am not sure as to what kind of tree that they like to choose for nesting.

 

 

I had only one gtackle show up to the feeder.  They usually show up in groups. I like how their feathers have subtle reflections. 

Hostas and lilies are poking through right now.  It is cold but they are coming through anyway.  Some hostas are not showing up yet though. 

It has been a quiet Saturday with us staying at home.  I did go out and take a few shots but it was very cold and I didn't stay long. We had freezing temps last night so I had to bring in all the potted plants back into the house.  It is suppose to get that cold again tonight.  We probably will turn hot soon and I can again turn the air on for us.  Thanks for showing up today.

Chilly Chills.....

 

My neighbor's flowering tree is looking great. I had to get creative and shoot the view through the crack in the fence.  The neighbor's and their dog are still in Arizona.  They need to stay there as we are suppose to get down to freezing temps tonight.

 

 Another neighbor's flowering shrub is way over there but we can see it from the sun room. It has grown big the past two years.  I am going to call it an azalea but I am not certain. It is one I think that can survive our winters while most of them can not.

I have always admired creeping phlox and am glad that I have it.  I don't think it is doing its best in blooms with it being 43° F. right now. It looks good against green grass but this color really isn't such a strong color. 

I bundled up to go get this shot. The blooms still are not all quite open. It is looking really good though..

The photo for the day of the red bud is looking like this.  I think it would look greater if it was 60° F. outside. 

The Siberian iris is shooting up now after I cut away all the dead leaves. It helped it to have a good rain for two days in a row.  I need to buy more mulch and work on that flower garden area some more.  I did pick a few asparagus sprigs out there this morning.  

Tomorrow will warm up a little so maybe I can get over being chilled.  It is a slow spring with the temps so low and I really won't do any yard work for now.  Thanks for stopping by today.