Wandering on Wednesday..........

 

Tiptoeing through the tulips isn't to hard with them planted a distance from each other. I do have more than yellow tulips but not too many. They look great out there in the orchard.  We will have lots of sun today to warm up the soil. 

I have less garter snakes than I use to but I did get a greeting from this guy above my outside basement door. I tried and failed to capture his forked tongue that he kept threatening me with while I retrieved something from the basement.  Today I will put out the agapanthus plants on the patio taking them out of their winter quarters in the basement. Photos will follow in the next few days of their reintroduction to real sunlight.

These two tulips keep changing color as they mature.  I think they are almost done blooming and probably tomorrows storm will take them down.  I am home today so I will get more outside work done.  I have mowing to finish even though the first mowing is getting tall and I have different garden things to do.  I may do some clipping with shears on some of the invasive shrubs.  My wheel barrow is down on the farm and I need to bring it home as my carrying of yard waste cause me to do a lot of walking.  I am allowed to burn this month so I don't want to miss the deadline on that.

It will be 90 degrees or hotter today but then it will cool down again.  We are cool at night so the heat of the day in the afternoon isn't that bad of a thing.  Farmers are busy getting corn planted during this time.  I have a farmer student friend at school that keeps me up on the planting schedule.  His dad farms 1000 acres, some his land and the rest is rental.  His dad has a very large 48 row corn planter so his work gets done quickly.  He had all his corn in by last week.

An addition to this story includes last week having the county sheriff coming out to find them planting at 2 am.  Someone had called in that an airplane had landed in a field near them in the dark and they looked like they were in trouble. The sheriff was amused but didn't like getting a call about it . He saw the four sectioned planter had lights on the end of it and the tractor had lights pointing both directions. He got out of bed for nothing for what he thought was a real emergency.  I have seen video of this planter and it has double sections behind the tractor and two more wings swing out from the two back wings like a robot to make this very wide planter.  The seed is shot through tubes by air with a computer telling it to do so while the satellites tell the tractor where to go to stay in line.

I am home today. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Tuesday, A Good Day.......

Another shot of the ornamental pear tree.  It has a great sweet smell.  The chokecherry is next door and it also smells great.  The winds seem so strong every time that I am out there that I have a difficult time getting a close shot of any of the blooms.  I guess I could cut one off and take the picture inside with my dining room table as a background.

I have wild violets like this that are a very deep blue color. My camera does not want to pick up that deeper color.  It is the camera and the photographer's fault.  Again I may bring in some of those dark colored violets indoors to see if it will help.

I need to buy new tulip bulbs.  I have a lot less tulips that I use to as they have died out on me.  I may grab some cheap ones later this summer and I can still put them in for next year. Most all of mine are yellow and this one lone flower gets mistreated by Barney.

The foliage is great to see and the pale iris flowers are great to.  This bloomed the first time last year so I am expecting greater things this year.  I transplanted a part of this elsewhere and I see it didn't survive. I also see that my hens and chickens did not survive the winter either.  I thought they were like a sedum and it wouldn't die that easily.

I will finish off with another bluebell shot.  I have taken a lot of them this year and sadly they are starting to close down for the season.  I am in the high school classroom again today.  The instructor is taking an Ecology class out to explore the real world.  For some kids, they rarely go into the timber.  Other students are avid fishermen or like to canoe.  They will do a self explore today.  A forensics class that he takes out looks for animal bones for a day in the woods.  It is going to be warm today and really hot on Wednesday.  I will have to put in my upstairs window air conditioner as our upstairs warms up on 90 degree days. Thanks for stopping by today.  Take care.

Rabbits Come and Go......

With a farm field across the street we seemed to never lack having a rabbit in the yard.  This one was less than ten feet away from me and it was certain that I couldn't see him.  He was in protection mode by standing very still.  Sometimes the rabbits do winter over under my front porch, eating food from the feeders and also trimming off some of my lilac bushes.  Some years I lose them from cars hitting them but there seems to be always another stepping in to take its place.  This is a larger rabbit so I am assuming it has wintered over on my property.

 

The bishop's weed, snow on the mountain, whatever you call it survived another winter.  It is short yet so we are not too far into spring.  The bayberry shrubs are looking good and when they get more filled out I will take shots of them. I survived my mowing of the yard on Saturday without any asthma break down.  I don't get that only once every couple of years and the primatiene tablets have to come out and save my life.  It usually is the new grass mowing that hits me hardest.  It isn't dusty this year so I may avoid it altogether. 

The sedum has grown a lot since my last photo.  Our soil is warming up so it will be getting much taller than this.  I have to remember to prune it back so I can keep it in a smaller shorter clump.

The ornamental pear tree is putting out great blooms right now.  The wind was blowing so I couldn't get a good close up of the flowers. This tree never puts out pears but it does put out blooms.  My mistake of not reading the label completely before the purchase.

My shrubs that look like this are all having a tough spring.  This one is being crowded out by a giant spreading juniper evergreen.  Others have been trimmed back and they are not going to bloom this year.  Some I took out all together along the alley as the sucker trees grew inside of them so much that I could not keep things looking good.  I can now mow over everything and no more sucker trees.

I am an English teacher today, Freshmen and Sophomores. I hope the day goes as well as the first three classes are going.  The class I am in right now is reading a brand new book named Code Name Verity. It must be good as they voluntarily sat down and started reading.

I hope all is well with you today.  I hope the weather stays more in the spring mode and we don't have to ever have our furnaces running again for a long time.  It does sound like the air conditioners will be churning soon as we are predicted to have an 82 degree F. day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday......

The wild violets are having a great spring with lots of rain causing them to be very lush.  I had snow kill in my lawn in various places and the wild violets seem to flourish when there isn't any competition.

The New England bluebells are doing great this year also.  We had snow last year at this time so they didn't look this good last year.  The area next to the bay window looks pretty bare but when the ferns get started the whole area will be filled with green. The bluebells will be died down by then.

The fern leaf peony is going to bloom soon.  I can see just a little red showing on the buds which means it won't be long.

The nest has been fascinating to me and my blogger friends seem to be interested in it too. I never see the mother robin on the nest. Her leaving the nest and distracting me from it is her way of protecting it. 

A larage part of my spring clean up is to pick up all the candy wrappers and plastic containers that have migrated into  the yard over the winter. My mower got jammed and shut down while mowing into a flattened  green pop container.  I had to turn the mower upside down and pull it out of the mower.  I also found this aged tennis ball in my flowerbed.  It isn't Barney's as it is outside the dog fence.

It looks like we will have a warmer day today and the rain shower has passed by already.  It should be a good spring day.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great Sunday.

Sunshine on Saturday......

I was out taking photos after school. When the robin flew away from the nest it reminded me I should try to take some photos.

While I am out in the orchard area the new neighbor dog was checking out the situation. It looks like a mix with white lab in it.  It isn't going to be as big as a lab but it could be young and still growing.

I have lots of things poking through the soil now.  This Asian lily is looking strong.  It will be two to three more weeks before it starts to bloom. Some things I have to wait to see what they are as they poke through and then transform into a plant that I didn't remember its location.  I guess I  plant so willy nilly that it is hard to know where everything is.  The flag iris look strong this year and maybe I will get a lot of blooms from them this spring.  The hostas shoot up like little rolled tubes of paper and then unroll into big leaves. I haven't seen any buds on the lily of the valley but if it stays warm I will be out everyday checking on things.

I received in the mail from Far Side some red zinnia seeds yesterday.  She knows that I forgot to plant last year so she is giving me a reason to remember this year.  I may get them into the ground by the end of the week.  Our frost date here is May 15th and I can get the soil ready this week some time after school. Thanks for the red ones Far Side.

I will be venturing out today to do some mowing.  I don't know if I can get it all done in one try but I will pace myself and do the tallest parts first.  I still have a few limbs and sticks to get up off of the ground. My health in regard to my walking troubles seems a whole lot better.  I figure mowing will give me an indication as to how much better that I am. Nothing too much planned for today but I have some things to do inside also. We have a warmer week ahead of us now and that means I can get more outside work done during the week.  The soil is so soggy now from all the rains.  We are not use to having things saturated so maybe our gardens will be better this year.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday..........

It is tulip time in Pella, Iowa this weekend and they are not fighting snow storms this year.  My big show is the few yellow tulips that I have and these two apricot tulips.  I have more that will bloom but they are putting out color late this spring.

I talked about the oxalis yesterday and here he is today.  I would rather have a vine in this planter but that hasn't happened.  I will plant these oxalis out into the ground when it warms up for me to do so.

The wild violets are starting to bloom in the warmer areas of my property.  The creeping Charlie is doing well also.  The leaves seem to be good mulch and they do shrivel up when it gets to be warmer than it is now.

I am having a slow Friday.  It is my day to do the Spanish room sub job.  They are taking tests and working on projects which works well for me.  The kids are having a slow day also.

I believe the weather guys today that we will get up to the upper 60's today.  We haven't seen sunshine for a long time.  I see by radar that it is clearing out and the rainy season is over with for a couple of days.

It was good to have a day off and now back to school on Friday seems harsh.  It will be good to have the day done and start the weekend.  I need to mow my yard now but will wait to see if it warms up for it.  I guess I have mowed it before last spring with a heavy shirt and sweatshirt with hood. I can do that again.  Everyone have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things......

The globe alum is pushing through around by gazing ball.  I brought the blue guy out a few weeks back when nothing was coming up.  Behind the ball you can visualize the lilac transplant.  It is really healthy looking this spring.  I had another sprout from it but the rabbits liked eating on it when the snow was higher.  One of the branches shows a very clean cut by a rabbit.

The oxalis is doing well in my side window.  It is a tough plant as I don't get it watered often enough.  I do think that it will be blooming soon with the spring light coming in the window.  My other planting of this plant in the donkey cart container seems to be doing well also that it in the dining room window.

I am home today so I may get out to check on my robins nest progress.  I don't think I have seen so many robins this year as we have in our yard. They are enjoying by bird bath tray of water and also are out hitting all the puddles. I noticed again today the the bluejays are hitting the neighbors pine tree often.  The tree must be putting out a smaller seed like cone that they can eat before it develops into a larger cone.

The orchard area is one my natural areas of  my yard.  At one time I did planned arrangements out there but now it is every plant for itself.  The tulips and grape hyacinths keep going and the test pocket of iris is still staying strong. Can you appreciate the fallen limb I placed like a decoration for now until I am able to burn it.

I have moved some of those iris out of the mass planting area, which had been given to me as starts in a large quantity. Even as I thinned them out hoping not to leave them there,they seem to be now established. If my ash tree is dead they will be glad to get the benefit of more sunlight and will do better there. 

We have errands to run today and customers from the past are bringing me an antique sweater to be framed today.  I had framed a 1920's gym outfit and a letter sweater at a similar time period many years ago  When they call to do one more sweater I feel like I can't refuse to do it.  We will get to a pharmacy today, pick up some grocery sales and hope to hit a Wally mart sometime. I do have work tomorrow again so we try to use my nonworking days at getting these kind of things done.

Being that it is May 1st I will share some flowing lilacs in honor of the day.  I know that ours will be blooming like this in a few weeks.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by my blog.