It's not Denver, but it's snow!

Okay, it's not two feet. It isn't even two inches, but it finally snowed here in Massachusetts yesterday (12-30). The kids were thrilled. There is something special about the first snow of the season. Already today, most of it has melted and the storm coming in tomorrow will bring warm temperatures and rain. We are well behind the normal 9 inches of snowfall for the month of December. This being New England, you never know what the weather might be like next week. The forecasters do say that based on historical records that Decembers with almost no snow are followed by a winter with a lower than normal snowfall. The real question will be: will we be short of precipitation for the spring?

A Walk in the Woods

I am half way through Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and really enjoying it. Living in New England like Bryson, I am familiar with the Applachian Trail running through the area. In fact, my husband and I have hiked small portions of it in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We certainly don't have as humorous adventures to tell of our experiences on the trail and with some of our fellow hikers.

Here we are hiking closer to home, on trails at the Beaver Brook Association in Hollis, NH.

Look at that Sky!

This morning the sky was simply gorgeous! Of course when I first got out of bed it was still dark out. While having breakfast, I looked out the window and noticed the color of the sky. I'm not sure if I captured the intensity of the colors exactly. Just like the old saying of "red skies in the morning, sailors take warning," we had showers later in the day. The science behind this phenomena, comes from the sun's rays shining through the dust in the atmosphere which is being pushed ahead of an approaching low pressure system bringing moisture with it.

Baby it's Cold Outside

I'm behind in my postings. The fall has gone by and I've been hard at work. Today, I am blessed with one of those days off where I can finally get caught up and create.

Here in New England it has finally turned seasonably cold. Last week in Boston we broke the temperature record on November 30th with a reading of 69 degrees (F) beating out 68 degrees (F) set in 1881! It was weird going Christmas shopping on the 1st of December in 60 degree weather.

Baby it's cold outside today as the song goes. While waiting for the bus to come for my son, I snapped these pictures of my rhododenrons. The leaves curl in an attempt to prevent mositure loss. It was 20 degrees (F) when I took these pictures. You can see that the bush close to the house is not as tightly curled as those near the street. Obviously, our house is not as weather tight as we would like, and some heat is escaping.

Ah-choo!! Or so I thought.

The things you learn. Here I was under the impression that Goldenrod (pictured here) was the culprit for the misery I have suffered every fall. The truth is that the guilty party is Ragweed which looks nothing like this plant. I have been walking around for the last week and a half in a daze of antihistamines trying to dry up my runny nose, and here I've been blaming the wrong plant. No wonder I have seen people growing it in their yards, and florists using it in arrangements. I thought these people were crazy, now I know better. What other misconceptions have I been living with?

Sitting in the Garden

What a gorgeous day. The last day of August; where did the summer go? Now technically, we have until the 20th or so of September for the Autumnal Equinox and the true start of fall and the end of summer, but once the kids return to school it feels like the end of summer. So after running around to appointments and errands, I decided to sit outside and enjoy a cup a coffee and my garden. I'm currently reading about the philosophy of Zen and tried focusing on the present moment. The yard was full of activity. The birds were all lining up for a turn at the feeder. They hop from branch to branch overhead and swoop from tree to tree across the yard. There were the usual suspects: chickadees, gold finches, nuthatches, and even a woodpecker. I shut my eyes and just listened to their songs and chatter. I also heard the drone of a distant lawnmower and the whine of the crickets and cicadas. Ah peace! Only to be broken by the rumbling of the school bus coming down the street returning the little darlings to me.

Vermont's Wildflower Farm

Just south of the Shelburne Museum on Route 7, you will find Vermont's Wildflower Farm, the "seediest place in Vermont."

They have a lovely garden walk through a meadow, down into the woods, and around to a pond. In the meadow, I found this milkweed plant with a nice cluster of pods.

Where there's Milkweed, there will be Monarch Butterflies, just like this one.

Although Monarch's lay their eggs on the milkweed plant for their hatchling caterpillers to eat the leaves, I photographed this butterfly on a Cone Flower or Echinacea. Extracts from this plant are believed to stimulate the immune system and are commonly used as a natural cold preventative.

Gardens at the Shelburne Museum

At the Shelburne Museum, there were many beautiful gardens. This formal one greets visitors when they first come onto the property through the ticket building. This border is found outside one of the cottages on the property.

At this time, the museum is sponsoring an exhibit of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings. Outside of the building housing the exhibit, you will find this garden inspired by her work.

Modern Day Postcard

Once upon a time, you would have purchased these images on a card, written a pithy comment ending in wish you were here and posted it in a mail box. Today, I've captured these images with my digital camera, down loaded to my laptop, and using the hotel's free wi-fi service I can send this out to the world to see.

We are visiting Shelburne, VT this week. It has been perfect weather for touring across the state. These pictures are from the Shelburne Museum. This museum is not your typical museum. Electra Webb began collecting buildings and items of Americana to fill them in the 1960s. Today the Museum trustees continue her mission.

The kids loved touring through the paddle wheel steamship the Ticonderoga. This ship was built in 1906 for a mere $162,232.65 and could carry up to 1070 passengers (only 6 lifeboats), and used 2 tons of coal an hour to achieve top cruising speed 23 miles per hour.

This covered bridge was brought to the Museum grounds and once served as the entrance until weight concerns caused the Trustees to create an alternate entrance. The Museum also includes a round barn, a Shaker barn, a horseshoe shaped barn, a vast collection of carriages and sleighs, quilts, toys, and even a lighthouse. It is definitely a great place to visit. Wish you were all here with us!

Weeds, Weeds, and More Weeds

The hot, humid weather in New England has spurred on the growth of the weeds in my lawn and garden. In the intense heat, there was no way I was going outside to pull weeds. Then to my chagrin, I came down with swimmer's ear and was proscribed an antibiotic which made me sensitive to the sun. The threat posed by mosquitoes and West Nile Virus kept me in at twilight. Finally, today we had moderate temperatures and I was determined to tackle the weeds.

You have got to love the names chosen for weeds. I have previously posted a picture and description of carpetweed, which lived up to its name this month and carpeted a vast area of the yard. The beauty pictured here is named spotted spurge. The spotted spurge is a drudge for sure. It's everywhere. I have seen it in the lawns of my neighbors, so I am not alone in battling this blight. When left to its own devices it can cover up to 16 inches of ground. In a way it is nice to know just what you are doing battle with. In reviewing several websites, I have identified many of the other weeds growing in the yard. Now if only I could be as successful at eradicating them as I have been in indentifing them.

Goldfinches

This year, I have been very consistent with keeping my bird feeders full. I even expanded by purchasing a thistle feeder in order to attach finches to my yard. Boy, has it worked. Goldfinches, I just learned, tend to stay together in small flocks longer than other species of birds. Because of their food requirements; seeds, which are more prevalent as the growing season progresses, they mate later in the summer. Knowing that they like seeds, I have let my flowers go to seed after blooming. Several years ago I planted Cosmos, an annual, which finches favor. Now, I don't even bother to plant them anymore, because every year the seeds that have fallen uneaten have grown the following season.

I managed to capture the male goldfinch above while getting a drink. Below in the first picture, is the male eating at the thistle feeder. The second picture is the female eating from the feeder I keep filled with sunflower seeds. If you are curious to know what the finch birdsong (as well as many other species of birds) visit the Macaulay Library.

More Dragonflies

We have a bumper crop of dragonflies again this summer. It is amazing the variety of colors, shapes and sizes.

This is a Spangled Skimmer who was sunning himself or herself on the garden pathway.


This in a Common Green Darner. I caught this one having a rest on a daylily in the front sun garden.





This last one, is a Common Basket tail. It perched on one of the plastic plant stakes I had used to support my peonies, when they were in bloom, earlier this summer. I was standing about two feet away when I shot this picture. I can't believe how still it stayed.

Foxgloves and Agatha Christie

Foxgloves are steeped in folklore. These plants are also the source of digitalin, a strong heart stimulant which in excess can cause death. Agatha Christie used digitalin poisoning more than once in her writing. In "The Herb of Death," a Miss Marple short story found in The Tuesday Club Murders, foxglove leaves are mistaken for sage and used to stuff ducks for dinner. Tommy and Tuppence, Agatha's husband and wife sleuthing team, encounter foxglove leaves mixed in with spinach for a salad in Postern of Fate. In both cases, the entire household partakes of the meal and gets sick, but only one member of the group dies. This is because someone has secretly added a fatal dose of digitalin into a drink the victim has imbibed. Agatha was famous for having more than one murder occurring in order to mask the true victim or motive for the murder. Often some innocent person was bumped off by the murderer in order to cover his or her tracks. No one would suspect one of the household as being the poisoner if everyone was sick. In many of her stories, the poisoner did just that, knowing that a little bit of the poison might not be fatal to himself, and thereby throwing suspicion onto someone else. Very tricky, but Agatha's sleuths always discover the culprit in the end, usually after a few more corpses have piled up.

Firefly Sighting

Last night, along the wooded line of the yard, there appeared to be hundreds of fireflies lighting up. It was the first time this season that I had seen some at night; I have seen plenty during the day. I have always loved to watch fireflies. One of my earliest memories of childhood is of watching fireflies one summer evening lighting up the backyard. I was kneeling on my bed, which had been placed under the window that faced the wooded back yard. My parents were sitting outside talking and enjoying the pleasant summer evening. Amazing the things you remember and what evokes those memories. Smells are famous for stimulating memories, but for me it is often a sight. It creates a sense of deja vu that sends me hunting in the memory bank for "where have I seen this before?"

You know me, I had to do a little research to understand more about fireflies. So here goes. The light created by these bugs is a result of a chemical reaction called chemiluminescence. Fireflies have specialized cells called photocytes which contain a chemical called luciferin. When oxygen and the enzyme luciferase act upon luciferin it is broken down releasing a short burst of light. Visit http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4th/KKhp/1insects/firefly.html for more information.

Dragonfly

With the sun finally making an appearance today, I found this guy sunning himself on one of the brick pavers which make up a path in my garden. Officially he is called a Common Whitetail. It was not easy catching him. I felt like Elmer Fudd creeping up on it, "Be very quiet, I'm hunting dragonflies." As I would get closer it would fly to the next step on the path. Finally, I "caught" him. It's amazing to watch them, you can actually see the entire body contracting as it breathes. We have a real variety of them in the yard and I hope to "capture" more of them as the summer goes on.

This second dragonfly is the female Common Whitetail. Read the information at the above link to learn what the differences are between it and another similar looking dragonfly. I was able to "capture" this one in the back yard. Living so close to water (swamp in the woods behind our house), provides a wonderful breeding ground for these insects. Unfortunately, it also is a great breeding ground for the dreaded mosquito. We will be having a bummer crop of those this year due to all the rain our region has experienced in the last two months (over 22 inches for May/June when the average is usually 6 inches). Can't go out without spraying oneself with OFF or Cutters, otherwise the pests will carry you off.

Identifying Weeds

It's weeding time! Previously, I had complained about the weeds and not knowing what they were called . A little time spent searching the Internet resulted in my discovering that this beauty is called Carpet Weed. It is aptly named as it is making a carpet of itself in the sunniest part of the garden and in the lawn. It is rather hard to dig up, the larger the plant the easier it is to grab a hold of and pull out of the ground. So between this stuff, the maple saplings which are sprouting (a had a stern talk with the chipmunks, they simply are not pulling their weight, they must eat the seeds faster so they don't have a chance to germinate), and the crab grass sprouts I have some work cut out for me.

If you are curious there are a couple of good web sites about garden weeds such as: www.weedalert.com and www.garden.org (the National Gardening Association's site)which has a weed indentifier link. This last site also has a neat plant finder where you can specify the type of plant, its color, height, growing needs and the finder will suggest plants that might work well in your garden.

Hummingbird Moth

If you look carefully at the upper left hand edge of the bloom there is a little brown/tan thing with a bright blue sparkle, that's a hummingbird moth. What is a hummingbird moth you ask, well so did I when I first saw one several years back. At first I thought it was some kind of bee or wasp since it had that kind of color and was doing the bee thing. Then I caught a better look and thought perhaps it was a hummingbird but it was much too small. The link I provided above gives a great photograph of it and explains about the three types of hummingbird moths. They are one of the few moths that appear in the daylight. That is the big difference between moths and butterflies, butterflies are daytime creatures and moths are night time. There are a couple of other distinguishing characteristics like their antennae and probiscus for example.

Flower Arrangement

Although I have a passion for growing flowers, I rarely bring them indoors perferring to leave them in the garden to enjoy. However, the heavy rains we have been experiencing are weighing down the blooms and breaking their stems. In order to rescue them, I have made an arrangement with some of the bent blooms. The most recent issue of Living magazine featured floral arrangements using hosta leaves. As an avid collector of hostas, I decided to try the idea in this arrangement. I collected a couple peonies, bearded iris, siberian iris and variegated hosta leaves. The result was beautiful.

Crayfish - the new lawn pest

Not what you expect to find everyday in one's backyard. This crayfish was a long way from the pond that's located in the woods behind our home. My husband found it while emptying the water in the shop vac (note previous posts - I planted grass last Tuesday afternoon, so we've had rain since Thursday) which had seeped into the basement. Our best guess is that he was intended for someone's meal and managed to get away. The crayfish has several predators including the raccoon and great blue herons. As there is a heron living in the swamp, perhaps it flew over with the crayfish in its mouth and dropped it. Your guess is as good as mine on this one. As soon as we went over to look at it, it put its claws up in a defensive posture. It didn't try to move away, so we were able to snap several pictures of it.

Over the Hedge

Last night we took the kids to see Dreamworks Over the Hedge a very funny story about when suburbia meets the wild. It is really poignant here in the northeast where there is nonstop development. Houses, "McMansions," coffee shops, and shopping malls are rising out of the ground, leaving the local wildlife struggling to find a niche. There are reports of coyotes, bears, and moose, to name a few, roaming down main streets and foraging in backyards. Let's face it where else do they have to go. As their food sources are destroyed they will turn to raiding our garbage just like the animals in the movie. What extremes will humans go to rid themselves of unwanted wildlife? See the movie to get one human's idea of pest control. Don't want to spoil it for you.
It was worth seeing, graphics excellent and some great lines. Made you think about how nonhumans view us.

Rainy Saturday

A rainy Saturday is in store for today. Much of this week was hot, humid and sunny and the garden is really making a show. I've noticed that when people walk by they slow down to look at the garden (I'm so modest). The irises are all in bloom now and the peonies are beginning to open as well. Of course the weeds are doing well. The crab grass and some other broad four leaf (not clover, I will have to do some research into what it is exactly) ground covering are making their presence know in both the lawn and the garden. I will have my work cut out for me when the weather clears. At least I don't have to drag the hose and sprinkler all over the yard in an attempt to water the lawn. We opened the pool last weekend and the rainfall will help to bring the water level up.

Otherwise, I will be indoors today catching up on my chores and there are plenty of those to keep me busy. It is also the opportunity to catch up on my reading. I have just finished Lynne Truss' (of punctuation fame Eats, Shoots & Leaves) With one Lousy Free Packet of Seed. Unlike her other works that I have read, this is a fictional story about the adventures of the staff of a failing gardening magazine titled "Come Into the Garden." It is a classic farce with the characters all interconnected somehow without their realizing it. Of course like all good farces it comes to a climax and all is sorted out (sort of, well mostly).

The Woes of Growing Grass

I do not have a lush carpet of vegetation growing over my yard. I am barely managing to keep what grass I do have growing. I am making a concerted effort this year to fix my lawn, just short of plowing it all under and hiring someone to come out and spray on a lawn. My main reason is to keep the dust down. When my husband mows the lawn I must make sure the windows to the house are all closed so we don't have a layer of dust all over everything. I spread grass seed almost a month ago only to have it rain for 10 straight days. What seed didn't get washed away, eaten by the birds, or rot, has begun to sprout. I decided to try again and wouldn't you know it the forecast is for rain the next three days.

Why is it that the grass that does grow, does so in places I don't want it. I have to weed the grass out of the flower beds and from between the bricks of the front walkway and the back patio. So on the one hand I do what I can to save the lawn and with the other I'm spraying weed killer to stop it from growing in the walks. Go figure. One can't always have what one wants.

White Iris

These white bearded iris are the first in the garden to bloom. They will be followed by some burgundy, purple, blue and yellow iris. By the end of the week I expect quite the show of flowers.

Mom and Dad came for a visit today and have brought me another bag of pachysandra. I plan to begin planting tomorrow. The last batch they gave me is doing well. At this point all the rest of the planting is done, or at least until fall when I will be putting some bulbs in for next spring. I have plans for more crocus, daffodils, tulips and some dwarf iris. Now will come the challenge of maintaining the garden. The maple trees are releasing their seeds; "helicopters" are twirling down to the ground. My chipmunks are gathering them in their over inflated cheeks but thousands will go uneaten and will germinate in the garden. Then I will spend hours on my hands and knees pulling the baby maples out of the ground. I chalk it up as good exercise.

Thanksgiving Dinner Anyone?

Earlier this year we were visited for the first time by a group of wild turkeys. One day we had 15 of them in the yard. There were three males all puffed up in their glory, strutting around with the "we bad" attitude. The females were ignoring them and fighting amongst themselves. They fed from the ground around the feeders, even though they could have easily reached up and eaten directly from the feeder itself. Once spring had really arrived and food sources were more plentiful, we no longer saw the turkeys until this week. We have had one perhaps two turkeys at a time visit the yard. I had the camera handy today and was able to catch this one in the act of eating dinner (she's under the feeder with her head down and the tail is behind the lilac bush that is just coming into bloom). All of a sudden I have a craving for stuffing and cranberry sauce.

Lilies of the Valley

These are the lilies of the valley that my parents gave me from their yard three years ago. They were planted at the foot of the back door steps, and had to be moved when Mom and Dad decided to add on a deck and I benefited with the gift of some plants. Each year they have multiplied and spread. I was out working by this patch of flowers today and could smell their scent. What a treat. The weather has been cooperative this week and I have been able to catch up on some of my gardening chores. I am finishing up planting my garden club sale purchases. I rinsed out the bird bath and refilled it with clean water, it was starting to look a little scummy. I moved one of my birdfeeders after finding it on the ground for the second time. I'm not sure what or who is managing to knock it out of the tree it is hanging in. Most likely the squirrels are to blame. The little darlings are getting rather fat on the bird seed, they have been making pigs of themselves.

The Annual Garden Club Sale

Every year on the third Saturday in May, the local garden club has its annual plant sale. Members donate perennials from their gardens, and this is a great way of knowing that these plants will survive in this area. Once again I awoke early Saturday morning to be there for 8:00am for the start of the sale. The church bells were just chiming the hour when I arrived and the place was already mobbed. Everyone knows to get the best stuff you have to get there early. I chose a few things to fill in the gaps in my garden.

Pictured here is a lupine that I bought 3 years ago. I brought it home and planted it and waited. The first year there were no blooms so I figured perhaps it didn't like being transplanted and waited patiently for the second year. Still no blooms, so I decided to move it, perhaps it simply needed a sunnier spot. Well, success! This year there are blossoms! I am thrilled. I have learned over the years not to give up on a plant but to try it somewhere else. Hopefully this year's purchases will also be happy here in my yard.

This morning I watched a Baltimore Oriole devouring caterpillars from a web cocoon. Great, eat them up before they eat the entire trees worth of leaves. The bird would eat and then sing, most likely celebrating his success in finding such a great hoard of tasty morning treats.

Bleeding Hearts

In spite of, or because of all the rain I am beginning to have a beautiful show of blossoms. With the sunshine finally here, the garden is taking off. I planted the pachysandra that my parents brought me from their yard (a large black garbage bag full). And according to my dad there's more where that came from, which is good since it hasn't covered the area that I wish to fill. One must be patient with ground covers, it takes a year or two for a good carpet of plants to form.

Bird sightings: the usual suspects plus a Northern "Yellow shafted" Flicker in the back yard and a Red Winged Blackbird. I have seen the blackbirds in the area but never in the yard. Most likely the pond that the beavers have formed in the woods behind the house has become more attractive to different species of birds.

Sunshine!!

We finally saw the sun late yesterday afternoon. This morning the sun rose and it was dry all day long. It may be a while before the ground is dry again. I worked today so it wasn't until after dinner that I was able to go out for a tour of inspection around the yard. I didn't plan on working but couldn't help pulling up some weeds with my bare hands (left the garden gloves in the shed). It felt good to have dirt under my fingernails again. On my rounds is saw the following: one of the rhododendrons is showing signs of getting ready to bloom, so are my white irises, the grass seed we planted has begun to sprout, and the honeysuckle bush by the woods is full of buds ready to burst.

The birds have also been busy! I refilled the feeders this evening. Over the course of the day I saw: a humming bird (the first of the season), blue jays, cardinals (male and female), chickadees, juncos, gold finches, sparrows, mourning doves, robins, nuthatch, titmouse, and for the first time I believe I saw a Rufous-side Towhee. The humming bird must have been desperate because it tried eating from the silk flowers on my front door wreath. It was funny to watch.

Will the Rain Ever Stop?

Here in Massachusetts, it has rained for 5-6 days now. We had a small break today, and I actually saw some blue sky. Unfortunately, the clouds swept in and we had another shower. The garden is looking okay, everything continues to grow. After all this rain and the fertilizer we put down on the lawn it will grow like gangbusters once we have sunshine again. The birds have been actively feeding, and I have been good about getting out to fill the feeders, that is in between sessions of pumping water out of the basement.

I finished up Down the Garden Path over the weekend. Even though I haven't been able to get out there and work I appreciated Nichols when he wrote, "A gardener is never shut out from his garden, wherever he may be. Its comfort never fails....he can still wander in his garden, does he but close his eyes (p.287)." What a comforting idea that is. He concludes his book with a note that he plans to continue to write books "under titles which will make you think that they have nothing to do with gardening at all. But they will have everything to do with gardening (p.290)." Thank goodness for public libraries, I have been able to request another of Nichols' books through the interlibrary loan service. I look forward to reading more about his adventures in the garden.

Down the Garden Path - Day 2

One good thing about cool, drizzly days is that you are more than content to stay indoors and read a good book. I'm half way through Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols and am thoroughly enjoying myself. It is a story about a garden, a gardener and all those who help him and those who hinder by giving their advice.
This was Nichols' first attempt at gardening and he was anxious to see results, I know that feeling. As a new homeowner (14 years ago), I wanted to get right out there into the garden and have something beautiful growing. "To dig one's own spade into one's own earth! Has life anything better to offer than this?" (p. 37). I whole heartedly agree with you Mr. Nichols. Later he writes, "The first real experiment was with mushrooms, and like all first experiments in gardening, it was a failure (p. 43)." I remember rushing out and buying a bunch of perennials in first bloom. Problem was that when summer arrived, all my spring blooming plants were worn out. It took time and a little research to plan a garden to bloom from spring to fall. I began achieving success after I stayed home with my children as a full time parent. Then I could really get to know my yard and the sun. What I thought were shady spots turned out to be sunnier and the sunny spots were full sun. I began to buy plants according to this new knowledge and started to have far more success. Of course, the summer that the shade garden in the back yard was at its peak we decided to sell the house. I took some of my favorite plants with me, the garden really needed thinning anyways.
I started with a fresh palette here at this new house as the previous owners were not into gardening. "And the extraordinary thing about it was that gradually my impatient desire for immediate results, which is the besetting sin of all beginners, died down. I began to take a joy in the work for its own sake (p.35)." Yes, it was like starting all over again. I put in my transplants and prayed they would come back up in the spring. I had to learn a new sun pattern and figure out the soil conditions. It has been five years and the garden is coming along nicely. I am trying to be patient as I wait for ground covering plants to cover the ground, for perennials to fill out, and for newly planted shrubs to grow in stature. No matter, I have found the "joy in the work for its own sake" and there is nothing better than to dig in one's own small piece of earth.

Down the Garden Path

Raining today, and it will for the rest of the week. Glad I got out in the garden yesterday morning to work before the wet weather arrived. As for today, I am inside working on a wedding present, a quilt whose pattern name is Gramma's (or is it Nana's) Garden. I have also started reading Beverley Nichols' Down the Garden Path. This book, written in 1932, is an account of the author's purchase and renovation of a thatched cottage and its surrounding gardens in Glatton, England. I've only gotten to the part where our hero (for what else can you call a guy who eagerly sets out to create a garden of his own), has purchased his cottage and drives down to take possession of it. It's a fantasy of mine to go live in a cottage in England, so I look forward to reading Nichols' adventures.

Got Honey?

Over the weekend working out in the garden next to the azalea bush, I snapped a couple of shots of some very busy bees. Somewhere there is a honey tree waiting for a Pooh Bear to come along hanging under a blue balloon humming a little tune to distract the bees. Always loved dear old Pooh. Actually, it was hard to get a good shot of the bees since there is such a time delay even with a digital camera. The darn things kept moving on me, not to mention I certainly didn't want to get too close and disturb them while they were at work. In fact one of them came buzzing at me, bees hate paparazzi. I managed to get a lot of work done in the yard, today I caught up on the indoor chores. Starting tomorrow, we will have rain. Rain's good. It's been way too dry this spring.

A Trip to Lull Farm

I went up to one of my favorite places today, Lull Farm in Hollis, NH. I go for their perennials and annuals and I always have good luck with the plants that I buy. The apple and peach orchards were in bloom. This photograph, which I took a couple of weeks ago, is of one of the apple trees in my front yard when it was first coming into bloom. Now the blooms have gone by and the leaves are out. The garden is doing well after having rain for the past couple of days. That was the main reason for going shopping today as we had sunny weather today and tomorrow is supposed to be the pick of the week. I promptly got most of my new plants into the ground and divided and moved a couple more of the established plants. My variegated Artemisia is going wild and so is the not so obedient "obedient" plant. Hopefully, the transplants will take off in the spots I have moved them to. All the other cuttings I have transplanted are looking good and healthy.

Stone Cache

I have begun work on a path in my shade garden and wanted to line it with stones. Today while bringing some weeds out to our compost pile in the woods, I discovered the previous owners pile of rocks under some leaves. I'm so excited. I have begun to excavate the area. I will need to cut back some wild raspberry to gain better access.
The feeders and bird bath were active areas today. At one point I had a male and female cardinal, male and female gold finch, chickadee, and a blue jay all in the garden eating and drinking.
I've done some more splitting and moving of the perennials. We are expected to get rain for the next two days so that helps the transplants get established. The 5 yards of bark mulch arrived today, so I have my work cut out for me. I will need to start giving all the beds a fresh edging.

It was a beautiful spring day here in Massachusetts (we live on the border with New Hampshire). I went to run errands today and enjoyed driving around pass greening fields and woods and through quaint towns. I hit the garden center today. I will have 5 yards of bark mulch to spread come Monday. I picked up a couple of additions for the shade garden (2 hostas, 2 lenten roses, and 2 lungworts) and the sun garden (a blue bearded iris a reddish-pink day lily). Worked on weeding the garden, raking and creating a path through the shade garden. It's coming along.

Starting to Bloom

I'm excited because the azalea bush buds are starting to turn pink. Within a few days I should have blooms. Yesterday afternoon I was out weeding and picking up downed sticks. Even after a winter of snow and wind there are still dead branches falling from the trees after every windy or rainy day. The raspberry bushes along the woods are starting to have leaves now.

The sun is trying to peek out today. We've had several days of much needed rain and cool temperatures. The transplants that I made last week are looking healthy and should do well. Now I'm out doing dandelion patrol. This morning I saw four, that's four, herons fly over head. Usually, I only see a solitary heron flying (we have a swamp/pond behind our yard). The small birds are also out in abundance this morning. The robins are probably finding worms easily in the wet ground and the song birds are eating steadily from my feeders. It was nice to have a couple of wet days so I could catch up with work indoors. When you're doing chores inside all you can think about is getting out into the garden, and once there thinking about all the stuff that piles up inside. Somehow the stuff inside isn't as important, well then again it can be a real pain when there's no clean underwear in the drawer.

Garden Books

I am in the middle of reading French Dirt:The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060975059/104-6192017-6381543?v=glance&n=283155) and loving it. First, it reminds me of Peter Mayle's work which I enjoy; second, my summer exchange student trip to France when I was 17; and third, my own work in the garden.

Now that Spring has finally arrived (I believe to stay here in New England), my perennial garden is going gang busters. The daffodils have doubled up over the years and are making a nice showing (always buy from Brecks). I don't do tulips since my yard borders conservation land (which are also wetlands) and am often host to night time deer maraudering in the garden. Must spray to keep them from making a salad out of my hostas. I am in the process of expanding the garden. Many of the plants need to be divided and moved around. I'm also trying to fix up the lawn, but as any avid gardener knows who cares about a green lush lawn, it's all about the blooms. Don't tell that to the three lawn crazies up the street from me. One of them is one his hands and knees with a basket checking grass blades one by one and pulling out the strays that don't belong. Must finish my cup of coffee and get out there before the promised rain arrives, and we do need the rain after the dry week we've had.