Insanely hot and humid yesterday, with storms popping up all over the northeast last night. Interestingly, we didn’t get any rain, but we sure as heck got a lot of wind. Scary wind. I had to run out to the porch with my flashlight a couple of times to batten down the hatches.
What a bizarre 3 days! I told Don I would just like some spring, please. For more than three days at a time.
Today, it is much, much cooler and sunny. I’ll take it.
I bought a long handled lopper the other day, and yesterday found me lopping away at brambles that were climbing up other plants or blocking my way or just plain annoying me. Today, I have to face the music and transport all the cut branches to the woods.
Flowering quince. Note the teeny tiny bug on the leaf.
I love the splash of orange/red.
They’re just about to pop. The heat moved everything along at hyper-speed. The trees have actual green leaves now! What a change in just a few days. It’s almost like Mother Nature was making up for all the spring days that were more like winter days.
This was part of the reason I was hacking at brambles. I had to break through them in order to take a picture of this – my favorite crabapple. I have a question: there are about three or four of these little trees that I would call crabapples. But they’re not all the same. This is the only one that has the pink buds and the flowers are slightly different. Is there more than one kind of crabapple?
Mowing the back forty is on the docket for today, plus cleanup of the aforementioned bramble branches. And some more topsoil. It’s going to rain tomorrow.
Happy Saturday.
I admire all your hard work. Love the photos. I’m about to hit the road to visit my friends. Hugs!
Have a great time!
There are many more. “Malus is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple also known as the eating apple, cooking apple, or culinary apple. It is dealt with under Apple. The other species are generally known as crabapples, crab apples or wild apples .” Enjoy your garden!
Thank you, Regula! I guess I’ll have to do some research!
how big is your lot, Claudia? You work so much harder than I have to but I’m in a “controlled” space…landscaped to within an inch of its life and no wild areas like you have. I have tried very hard to work with the landscape architect to create my unique space to make it very different from my neighbors and I think I succeeded. It’s very bird bee and butterfly friendly.
We are in the country and a lot of this area is somewhat ‘wild’ for want of a better word. We also have a small wooded area. We’re just under two acres.
I guess it’s spring. One day it’s close to 80…and the next 65. Almost 5 inches of rain…close to freezing predicted for Sunday night. Go figure? Buy, I did break down and buy a fern and a hanging basket…I just had to do it!
I don’t envy you your work load…take lots of breaks. All the wild areas around here are across the street….thank goodness. Your flowering trees are gorgeous. Enjoy your day! ;)
5 inches of rain is a lot! It’s crazy. I know it’s going to go down to 38 on Monday night. I’ll have to bring in some plants. Enough already!
Claudia, You got me wondering about the number of crabapple varieties and this is what I found on sfgate.com .
“Although about only 30 species of apple trees exist, hundreds of crabapple hybrids are available. Gardeners choose cultivars based on flowering time, disease-resistance, color and fruit taste. Early-flowering crabapples include “Aldenhamensis,” Siberian crabapple and M. floribunda. Hybrids with interesting foliage include “Eleyi,” which has purple leaves that contrast with its red flowers and purple-red fruit, “Elise Rathke,” which produces green apples with pink blushes, and M. trilobata, which has red leaves that resemble maple tree leaves. Well-known types that have good-tasting fruit include “Transcendent,” “Centennial” and “Dolgo.” “Maypole” is a dwarf variety with tasty fruit.”
I had no idea!
Amazing! Thanks, Kim!
Love the flowering quince! And the crabapple is gorgeous, too! So glad everything is finally getting green!
It makes an enormous difference, doesn’t it?
I’m worried that you’re going to pick up a tick in all that woodsy stuff. I remember about you and Lyme disease, Claudia. And Don’s not there to help identify what could be on you.
I have a cousin who was hiking in the woods in Virginia last year, not far from a summer place they rent and she & her son didn’t realize they each had a tick on them, so she was petrified and it all turned out okay…but, scary.
Everybody gets ticks – in the Midwest, in the South, in the Northeast.
Well, you see, I’m West and I don’t even know what one looks like; I’ll educate myself better about it.
xo
If I worried about ticks, I’d get nothing done. I don’t worry about them. I take precautions, wear long sleeves if possible and my muck boots. And I take a thorough shower when I’m done for the day. I did this all last year when Don was away, too.
Okay; reassuring. Of course you’d know what to do. I actually looked it up to learn more and there’s a misconception by some (me) that every tick carries the disease (they don’t).
Have to say, totally off subject, that it’s troubling how, in the press, they’re starting to sound like John McCain is already dead. I know it’s bad; is info being released, like who’ll speak at his funeral, to prepare us? Have things taken an inevitable turn? Filled me with sadness just now, reading some of this online. I’m not a Republican and I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said but I consider John McCain an American hero and I’ll never forget when he came home from Viet Nam after being imprisoned; had a huge impression on me, with my whole family staying up to watch the TV with the POWs’ plane touching down on American soil. He was limping (embedded in my teen mind forever).
I’ve just read an exhaustive piece published in US News & World Report, from what he wrote in 1973 and also I think 2008 where he described what happened to him in his imprisonment and I think he spared us a lot of details of what he endured. Has left me in tears…again. He said, “I had a lot of time to think over there, and came to the conclusion that one of the most important things in life—along with a man’s family—is to make some contribution to his country.” He did and does.
I know. It’s morbid and ghoulish. He’s still alive.
I don’t always agree with him, but he is a good man and a hero. It will be a terrible loss for his family and for the nation.
xo
love the photos! We are a couple weeks behind you; green is beginning to pop on the trees and shrubs.
Glad it’s beginning to show itself, Carolyn!
No quince in this part of the country. Your pictures are beautiful. Lots of hard work taking care of that much land, but I’m sure every time you look out your windows you feel it’s worth it.
I do. The quince was here when we moved here. It’s a real treat every spring.
Today is better and not so hot. Rain is predicted fro Sunday. Your crab apples are pretty.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
Today was our annual trip to the Amish greenhouses. It was a beautiful day ~ sunny and 79*. We completely filled the back end of the truck. Now the real work will begin as we pot and plant.
It sounds like you accomplished a lot today! It really is an incredibly busy time of year with several to-do lists in hand, isn’t it? It is a good busy that surely leaves us very tired at the end of each day. Have a good evening, Claudia!!
It’s a good busy, but man, am I tired!
I just love the color of those flowering quince blossoms…my son and I have been talking about putting another tree in out back…maybe that could be the one…
It’s more of a bush, but it would be lovely, that’s for sure.