garden — Page 141

Potpourri on Monday

May 1, 2017 at 10:05 am by Claudia

• Gray day yesterday. So far: equally gray day today. Friday’s warm temps dropped twenty degrees by yesterday. This year’s erratic spring weather is consistent in its inconsistency.

• First up: I’ve decided to let the cedar Adirondack chairs weather naturally and not paint them. After reading up on the care of cedar – staining and adding a protective coat every year, or painting and having to repaint every year – those options looked less and less attractive to yours truly. For goodness sake, our kitchen is in desperate need of a paint job and I still haven’t got around to it! Painting and me = oil and water. My only hope for painting the kitchen is to enlist my husband, who, as you well know, is currently far away.

I did buy some cushions yesterday and am going to look for more today. Also on the shopping list: mulch and more mulch, top soil, and potting soil.

And plants to put in the pots.

• The daffs/narcissus in the woods. I have the same kind of narcissus in my garden, and it’s just about ready to bloom. Interestingly, the yellow daffodils on the edge of the woods didn’t bloom this year. They are usually the first to bloom and they came up earlier than usual because of the abnormally warm temps, so I’m wondering if the extreme temperature fluctuations we had this spring were the culprit. I think they were.

So delicately beautiful.

• The catalpa, always the last of the trees to leaf out, is just beginning to show some baby leaves. I love this tree, home to giant heart-shaped leaves and flowers in June, as well as to our resident honeybees.

• Vicki was noting the other day in a comment the disappointment she feels when a favorite blog suddenly fades away; more and more time between posts, less and less substance, less of the author’s voice, etc. I have felt the same disappointment when a blogger either stops blogging or lets months go by between posts. Some of those bloggers have taken to Instagram because, I presume, it’s quicker and easier to post a photo and a short caption. Of course, the conversation that a blog affords between a blogger and the readers can still exist on Instagram, but, let’s face it, it’s shorter, less revealing, and requires less commitment.

I like Instagram and I post there. But for me, it could never take the place of sharing my thoughts and ideas and the story of our life here at the cottage. There’s depth and then there’s a sound bite. But, I equally understand the demands of daily life, especially if one is younger and raising a family. Finding the time to blog can be very hard, indeed. And, I also understand those bloggers that have been blogging for a number of years running out of steam. Boy, do I understand that! It can be daunting and frustrating and it takes a lot of time. Fortunately for me, I still enjoy it and I remain committed. Someday that might change. But for now, I’m good.

Instagram affords a lot of people the space to share their lives in a more manageable, less time consuming way.

The same holds true for readers as well. I have longtime readers and newer readers and, along the way, some readers who have been fairly consistent commenters will just disappear. Some time will pass and I will suddenly think, “Where is so-and-so?” Just as you might worry about a blogger if they suddenly stop blogging, I worry about a reader who stops commenting (though there is certainly no commenting requirement around here!)

Sometimes I write to the commenter to ask if everything is okay. Mostly, I try not to take it personally and wish them well. Maybe they’re tired of the blog, or of me, or maybe I’ve said something that didn’t sit right. I have no way of knowing; all I can be is myself.

Just as I’ve had readers disappear, I’ve certainly moved on from some blogs that I used to read all the time and I am guilty of not commenting as often as I used to. I guess it’s the way of the world, or at least my world, at present.

Anyway, all this is to say that I understand. We develop a relationship with blogs over the years. We come to know the bloggers and care about them. I come to know you and care about you. But, just as life itself involves friendships/relationships that remain consistent through the years or eventually fade away as our needs evolve and change, the same holds true for bloggers and readers.

But it does make one sigh, doesn’t it?

When you find a lilac shaped like a heart, you have to take a picture of it.

Happy Monday.

Investigating

April 18, 2017 at 10:06 am by Claudia

The wind has died down, thank goodness. We had about three days of it, which is three days too long for yours truly. Today is coolish and sunny and still. Good.

I moseyed around the property yesterday as I checked on new growth. Everything is taking off. I haven’t yet cleaned out the area around the peonies, but I see the red stems coming out of the ground.

Two of these beauties were dining on some clover in the lawn. They were very small – maybe an inch and a half to two inches wide? I thought they were moths, but my investigation (I use that word loosely) tells me they may be Painted Lady butterflies. They migrate from Mexico to Canada in the spring. I’m going to settle on Painted Lady unless someone has more information?

The maple right outside the kitchen door is leafing out. Huzzah! The big sugar maple always takes a bit longer, but it’s on its way.

Yarrow in the big garden bed. I love those delicate, lacy leaves.

The hyacinths are so beautiful. I found these bulbs – mystery bulbs to me – when I created another garden bed on the side of the house. I didn’t know it they were viable, but I took a chance and planted them here in the big garden bed. I was so delighted when I realized they were hyacinths!

I found another crabapple tree in the middle of an area of brambles which is close to our property line but very near to the kitchen window. There were so many brambles that I didn’t dare try to get close to it, so I ran inside for my new lens.

After almost 12 years here, I still find surprises. It’s a nice sized tree, so I imagine I’ve somehow missed it because it’s in an area that I usually leave to itself. Brambles and I don’t get along, though I have to do some trimming today. Wish me luck.

There’s also a baby tree springing up right outside the kitchen window – that’s what sent me outside yesterday. I saw two little flowers blooming and knew I had to investigate. That little sapling led me to the bigger tree.

If I have misidentified this, let me know. There is another crabapple that I’ve spoken of on the other side of the property, down near the street. I see that it’s budding and here’s my quandary: that crabapple has a pinkish color of unopened flower bud and when the flowers finally open, you can see traces of the pink on the back of the petals. I don’t see that with these flowers. But I’ve searched and searched and the only possibility I can settle on is…crabapple.

Once things start taking off in the gardens and on the property, there’s always something new to investigate! Maybe instead of Nancy Drew, I should invent a character named Nancy Grew…

Happy Tuesday.

Miracles in the Garden

April 16, 2017 at 10:37 am by Claudia

Whatever you are celebrating today, I send you my best wishes for a happy and joyous day.

Here in my neck of the woods, the temperature is going to reach 81 degrees and then, as is the case in the Spring, it will drop back down to a more moderate temperature tomorrow.

My beautiful lilacs are coming along nicely. I took this a couple of days ago, so I’ll have to do an update later today.

This is the season of miracles. Plants that were thought lost are back again. Old reliable friends have spread their beauty into other parts of the garden. We’ve made it through a month in which there were balmy days and then suddenly, snow and frigid temperatures. Still they survive. And thrive. Amazing and truly wondrous.

Back after taking a year off:

These beauties. In a garden filled with green and brown, this splash of vivid purple makes me smile.

Yesterday I took a little ride and then came home and decided to mow the area of the lawn that is on the house side of the driveway. Since we’re on a slope, rain water flows down the slope and portions of the lawn grow very quickly and densely. In April and May, we usually have to stop the lawnmower and clear out clogged grass, then start it again and this can go on and on. Since I’m handling this on my own, I decided to mow early and often. As I opened the shed to get the lawn mower, I noticed the bins holding the air conditioners had fallen forward (they’re fine) onto the snowblower.

Crap. I knew I would have to move them, as I didn’t want any damage to occur to the snowblower. I moved the lawnmower out of the shed and lifted each bin off the pile and down to the floor of the shed. But that left no room for the lawnmower. Since I wasn’t sure how to reconfigure the shed contents on my own, I took two of the bins outside the shed. Then I wheeled the lawnmower down toward the lawn and mowed. That in itself was tiring. When I finished, I looked at those bins and figured I might as well drag them toward the house – which I did – and move them inside.

And then, despite what I knew Don would say, I proceeded to install the kitchen a/c unit. It’s the heaviest and most awkward of the units and it wasn’t easy. Lots of heavy lifting. At one point in the middle of the process, guess who called? Yep. I fessed up immediately, explaining that I had no idea where to put them after I’d had to haul them out of the shed. He wasn’t happy, but he understood.

Then I moved the bedroom unit up the stairs one at a time, by pushing it up onto each step. Once I got it upstairs, I could easily move it into the bedroom. This one is the scariest for me to do on my own because I’m so afraid that I’m going to drop it and it will crash to the ground. In the middle of the whole thing I almost gave up. But I somehow managed it and it’s a done deal.

There’s still the unit for the office to install but that can wait.

I was really, really exhausted at the end of the day. A nice hot bath helped.

So, I’m taking it easy today. Really, really easy.

Enjoy your day, friends.

Happy Sunday.

Potpourri on Monday

Investigating

Miracles in the Garden

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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