Rhododendron Sunday

Ahh, a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning on Not Wisteria Lane.

The greening grass, the blue sky, the daily-growing perennials in the front border...all of it beckons to me, whispering ideas for how to pass the day: seedlings that should be repotted, locations of border perennials to be mapped out to help me learn the layout of this new garden. The lawn areas could be raked a bit more for winter thatch and snowplow-displaced driveway shells, and maybe even mowed. And the round end beds need to be finished, including the installation of the big birdbath.

Ah, Sunday. Project day. "Day of rest."

Well, not exactly. Today we were hosting the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society for their annual dinner meeting at the restaurant, so it was a work day. But at least it was a garden-centric work day!

Also, by the time the event began, clouds began covering the sky. I'm sure I was not the only gardener present who was not unhappy at the prospect of it raining while we were inside doing other things!

Included in the festivities, due to the spring timing, is a cocktail hour display of lovely blooms currently in progress from various members' yards and gardens, as well as a guest speaker and a plant auction, all before the dinner itself.

I was able to snap a few pictures to share with you all. At this late point in the day, I'm feeling a little dense that I didn't take the time to jot down the names of these particular rhodos, as well.

In my defense, I was also making sure the room was warm enough, and that the microphone worked and trying to make the entree selection orders taken from tables more or less match what was actually prepared in the kitchen based on the advanced reservation, and all the other hundreds of attempts Mr. Murphy's laws make behind-the-scenes at a typical function. In that regard, today was pretty mild.

And having the flowers there made it seem less like work.

The guest speaker for the afternoon was Steve Hootman, who's the curator and co-executive director of the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden, of Federal Way, WA. Did you know there are over a thousand species of rhododendrons? That makes it kind of a crime that we see the same two or three varieties in so many yards around us, doesn't it? Be sure to check out the gallery of rhodo photos (heh...) at the RSF website, if you click (why wouldn't you?)!

I didn't get to see all of Steve's slide show presentation, but what I saw was quite fascinating, I thought, particularly his botanical adventuring in the mountain wilds of Japan and Korea. I've always enjoyed tales of botanists exploring habitats, discovering new plants and harvesting seeds to bring home with them to cultivate and study.

I think I'd enjoy learning more of the stories behind so many of the plants we befriend in nurseries each year. Where do they come from, who are their relatives, what do they like, what do they hate? A plant's 100 list can be pretty helpful in encouraging it to thrive, when you think about it.

Anyway, that was our day, and a good one it was. The weather was still a little grey and iffy on the way home...but really, all the better to see the fresh pink blush of this pretty cherry tree in Brewster.

After another enjoyable family dinner and a new (!!!) episode of "Desperate Housewives", I'm happy to report I did find time to transplant some of my more eager sunflower seedlings into larger pots.

On Top of Mount Dump-It...

Beautiful morning, as we got that day of "practice" sunshine I was whining for last night. After a cup of joe and some cat-nail trimming (he's so cooperative, it's kind of amazing...), I got myself outside to spread the Starbucks coffee grounds around.

I was real pleased with how fine they were ground and how nice and dry they were. It seemed they'd been dried in little muffin cups...maybe it's the shape of their filters or something...but the grounds were in crumbly cakes. I spread them around, focusing on the roses, but trying to get a little bit everywhere.

The bunnies...or something...have continued with the crocus nibbling, taking more of them right down to the level of the dirt. Grrr...also the tips of some tulip foliage seem to have been nipped, as well.

In other news, my digital camera decided to give me the finger and won't extend the lens, telling me its a "zoom error". It is over three years old, and has taken over 10,000 photos in that time. But double grrr. Today's photos were taken with Owen's camera. I'm a little unsure of all the settings yet, but these came out okay, I thought.

It was a beautiful day out there, but there was a full day ahead, so I resisted the cardinal's song and headed inside to get ready for work. Still, there was no escaping the world out there. I saw the flicker out the bathroom window as I shaved and as I dressed, I watched a cardinal and a robin canvassing the greening grass nearly side-by-side, while a sparrow explored the hedge behind them.

After work, I spent some more time tidying up the side of Mount Dump-It, that lumpy little hill behind the house. We see it out the back windows, so I'm mainly trying to improve our view.

I pruned back some viney things, so I can study what they are before I decide if they should be running wild...and there's plenty of assorted seedlings and things greening up the hill where I've raked away the old foliage stalks. I wanted to prune the apple tree some more, but resisted all but a few errant branches which were running the wrong way across the tree. After it's blossomed, I'll tidy it up some more. I found some old apple remains on the ground from last season. They looked to be nice-sized fruit, so I'll be careful not to prune too heavily 'til fall.

I added some rocks to the raked hillside, both for erosion control and to make it a little more interesting to look at. I'm not finished here, but this time of year I have the attention span of a flea, and I let myself be drawn up the side of the hill by a pair of birds I could hear calling back and forth.

There was a blackbird and his mottled girl in a tree at the back corner of the property, and I climbed almost to the top of the hill, so I could watch them more closely, without interrupting their date with my presence.

They sat on different branches, he a little higher. And then he dropped down to a lower branch. And she moved one branch away. He closed the gap to the branch between them, and she hopped away to another. Their coy game of checkers went on for a minute or two throughout the tree before they came to some agreement and flew off together.



Overhead, a pair of crows fly side-by-side. At first they are parallel, and then they cross one another, taking the other's position as they go parallel again, and then swap places again, spiraling around one another, weaving a flirtatious invisible ribbon across the sky.

Through all of this, a cardinal is singing in a treetop two lots or so away, with a host of smaller, twittery birds singing back-up from all over the place. You kind of get the idea these birdies have only one thing on their mind right now.

I kind of enjoy the view from the top of the hill, since you can see over the houses to the trees in the neighborhood and that blue sky beyond. With the sun over my shoulder to the west, it was cool to spend a few minutes just watching the bird world going about its dirty business.

Beautiful sky this evening as Emily and I took our almost- nightly constit utional (which sounds so much nicer than saying "Em dragged me around the block", although that is essentially more true).

I must admit, I was taking pictures primarily because the silhouettes of the bare tree branches struck me...only later, did I discover a few things in the sky which were pretty interesting. For example, if you embiggen the top photo, there's something in the center of the sky, right up at the top of the image. I'm sure it was just the way the setting sun reflected off the clouds...but does it look a little like the Bat Signal to anyone else? I'm mean, I know it's not, obviously...there are hardly buildings tall enough to swing between here in Harwich.

And then there was this sort of arrowhead looking thing.

On the "back side" of the block, there's this tree (I'll have to wait for it to leaf out before I can attempt to properly name it); I just like the way it looked against the sky.

Not that I'm feeling particularly patriotic these days, but when I looked at the lower part of the image, I couldn't help seeing the American Flag up there in the red and blue clouds. All we'd need is a few stars to finish it off.

Anyway, it was a nice drag...er, walk around the block.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter and Blessed Spring from us here on Not Wisteria Lane, to all of you!

I was up in time to hear the early morning drumming of the downy woodpecker who likes to bang against the outside of the computer area almost every day.

It's a pretty cool sound, though you can put easy money on it totally firing up the cat each morning. After a minute or two of just enjoying his rhythms, I snuck out the front door and was able to reach my camera hand around the arbor vitae to catch this shot of him before he flew off.

Here we go: this never fails. Each spring, I'm keeping an eye on 10 million different clusters of crocus foliage, trying to guess where the first blossom will appear.

And every year, the first flower comes from some spot I wasn't even watching. Here's our first Purple Pretty, springing from a clump of shasta daisy foliage this morning.

Here's the bunnies Owen and I surprised one another with this morning, each of them as different as we two. Mine to him is the cute, cuddly guy with the carrot and the plaid bowtie. His to me was this little thug-bunny with the bling and the colors. Heh heh...he even sings a bit of "In Da Club" (Go shorty, it's yer birthday...) when you squeeze his paw. Quite a pair, aren't we...er, they?

I shouldn't be surprised that Em's been a little wistful around the empty rabbit cage lately. There's no reason why she shouldn't be missing George. We all are, especially on his big holiday.

So far, we've been successful in resisting the temptation to fill his void with some new little bunny, or a pair of chicks or a duck (oh, how Badum would love that...)or something even less predictable.

Better to focus on the kids we have already...especially since our boy Badum seems to have a renewed spirit of adventure, having escaped twice into the Great Outdoors this past week. Fortunately, the bird-filled skies just mesmerize this kitty and he's fairly easy to corral.

I had my own celebration of spring today with a bit of yard work, getting the front lawn raked and assorted shrubs at the front of the house pruned into tidy shape for the coming season. When that was through, I tackled the years of old dried foliage of past seasons that had built up on the lump of a hill in our backyard which houses the septic system.

There's all kinds of things growing there...looks like asters and goldenrod and some daisy variety, as well as something that may be russian sage or something similar. Clearing away all the old stuff opened up all the green clumps of foliage underneath and hopefully they'll grow better for the exposure.

Since being atop the hill (I call it Mount Dump-it) affords full views of the neighbors' yards and the similar lumps in their own backyards, working up there afforded me the chance to meet another of our neighbors. They are quite happy to see someone taking an interest in making things look better, which is encouraging. Of course having neighbors to talk to at all while I'm at assorted chores is still a new thing.


Hey, look what happens to your shoelace when you don't realize it's become untied while you're raking! Fortunately, this is last year's pair, dedicated now only to gardening.

I started pruning some of the unnecessary branches from the long-untended apple tree, as well, but the remainder of that project remains for another day and a greater variety of tools than my hand pruners.

However, I did bring in a few branches to see if I can force some blooms from them.
They'll be a nice foil to the african violet, which as you can see is also helping to move the whole Spring Thing along.

In yet another sign of the changing season, did you know that yesterday was National Pillow Fight Day? I had no idea--you should totally check out the video at JMG and watch those feathers fly!

Sunday

Sunday found us splitting our time between sunshine and clouds. The sun would shine bright and golden, if not as warm as yesterday. And then the clouds would roll in and it would get real dark. And it would rain.

And then the sun would come out as it rained, and the rain would stop. And the cycle continued, with rain being replaced with snow flurries. That photo above was taken as snow flurries flew, though none translated to the image.

However, a little while later, there was a slamming gust of wind as it got real dark...and then it began to snow.

It felt like the start of something, but it wasn't the start of a big snowstorm.

As evening deepened, we've seen a few more rounds of snow flurries, full of sound and fury and amounting to very little.

The wind's howling, though. It's churning the wooden chimes in the side yard and jangling the storm bells in the birch tree out front and bringing in some very cold temperatures.

A Garden Floods

Ah, there's nothing like winter to test a gardener's faith.

While so much of New England was shoveling out from some serious snowfall, here on the Cape, we saw a day of heavy rains, with only the lightest of snow at the start and finish of the day.

However, as you can see, the rain all seemed to collect in the new garden beds. I'll have to raise these up as soon as spring allows, but for now, I can only hope the water all drains off (there's a lot of sand down deep) before we get another heavy freeze.

Twelfth Night

Two views of a lovely sunset here at Not Wisteria Lane this evening, from both the front and back yards.

Winter Comes Home

Having only recently moved in, the house remains in a bit of disarray, and some unlikely things are in spaces they might not normally be...such as this pair of potted canna lilies, who've begun growing during their last three weeks in my bedroom.

The lily of the valley on the window sill are, of course, fake.


Our snow continued for a little while longer this afternoon, its pristine white offering a nice back ground for the bones of last summer's Queen Anne's lace.



Here's our snowy street as I left for work. Note the glimmer of blue sky behind snowy clouds.


Around the corner from us, some folks have decorated this lovely little pine tree for Christmas, using those deep, rich toned LED light strings.

I think these lights make this tree a quiet beauty, especially now with a coating of snow on the ground, and it's been a welcoming treat for the eyes every night just before getting home.

Perhaps you've noticed I'm a little late posting tonight. With our outdoor current temperature of 16 degrees (Fahrenheit, for you Europeans...), I think you'll agree that tonight was hardly the ideal night for our furnace to give us the Finger.

Fortunately, we noticed the increased chill in the house before it was too late in the evening to want to contact our landlord, who brought an emergency service person over...and although they've both left not long ago, I'm very happy to say the furnace is working once again.

The Ocean Effect

It's 18 degrees out there this morning and I couldn't be less interested in venturing out, though I'll do so shortly.

I have lots of sympathy for this little bird digging through the snow and trying to stay warm. To help him and his brethren along, I tossed some fresh seed out just a little while ago.

With the cold has come a steady stream of ocean effect snow and the promise for more as the day progresses. Fortunately, it is the light, fluffy kind of snow, easily swept and not too hard to keep up with. I just cleaned about an inch of the stuff from the back porch and walk. And here's the good news from the National Weather Service:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A SNOW
ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THIS EVENING.

OCEAN EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS CAPE COD THROUGH
EARLY THIS EVENING. TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF A TRACE TO 5 INCHES ARE
POSSIBLE WITH THE HIGHEST TOTALS EXPECTED ACROSS OUTER CAPE COD FROM
HYANNIS EAST TO CHATHAM AND NORTH TO PROVINCETOWN.


SATELLITE...RADAR AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS INDICATE BANDS OF LIGHT TO
MODERATE SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS OUTER CAPE COD FROM HYANNIS TO CHATHAM
AND PROVINCETOWN...WITH LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS AND FLURRIES APPROACHING
THE CAPE COD CANAL.


SNOW WILL VARY IN INTEN SITY GIVEN THE LOCA TION OF INDIVI DUAL SNOW
BANDS. GUSTY NORTH WEST WINDS COMBINED WITH THE FALLING SNOW WILL
TEMPORARILY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO ONE HALF MILE OR LESS. SNOW WILL
BEGIN TO TAPER TO FLURRIES THIS EVENING AS WINDS SHIFT TO WEST AND
SNOW BANDS SHIFT TO THE EAST OUT INTO THE OCEAN WATERS.

A SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY
TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND
LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

Dawn of A Year

I thought it'd be good to start the new year with a little exploration of our new environment, so I decided to look for an alternate route to the grocery store and found myself stopping by Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich for a little local color.


The new calendar page shone more brightly a few hours earlier, with a sunrise I didn't get up to photograph and we enjoyed a sunny hour or two before clouds began to slip into view.

By the time I'd reached the harbor, it was beginning to rain fairly heavily and my taste for reconnaissance waned. Just as well, there was plenty to do still at the new homestead.

I did manage to stop for a look at this little roadside pond that comes up to the edge of the road on either side as the road passes through a hollow.

This bothers me on some level, since there's an indication that this used to be one larger pond, now split in half by the roadway. It's an important roadway and all, but I'm still saddened by our human need to dominate the landscape, often with little thought for other creatures.


But at least the two halves of the pond remain, and weren't filled in for develop ment.

The other day we drove past this pond and there were several ducks floating right there beyond the guardrail, one with his butt high in the air as he foraged below the pond surface.


This amused me, since we were suddenly closer to these ducks, in our vehicle, than we'd ever gotten to the ones who made Krogman's pond in Eastham their winter home.

New Year's Day is a good time to take stock of things, and I suppose I was doing just that as I sorted through and unpacked various boxes of the Things We Moved.

And its a great time to count your blessings, and remember to include the little things that make our souls sing...like Clementine oranges!!

I only saw a few minutes of this year's Tourna ment of Roses Parade, but by late evening, I had managed to carve out some office space in the back room and got the computer station configured, for the arrival of Broadband and telephone service tomorrow.

Please indulge me while I finally show off my sweet new computer chair, one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year!

The Great Migration Begins

Returning to Not Wisteria Lane this morning, and having some faith in what I could accomplish in the time allotted, I brought along the first plants I wanted to "install" along the fenceline.

Remember that big clump of curly grass (check the August archives if you dont...)? I divided it during the Great Potting a couple weeks back into four plants, which should make a nice soft spine for the fence garden.

Also making the trip were a small burning bush, two different roses, a pot of tall garden phlox, one of those mystery plants from the marsh with the tiny white flowers (I know it will hold its own in the bit of damp clay I discovered at the far end of the fence), some of the lavendar beebalm and a scotch broom. Oh, and a nice big pot of deep red dianthus.

The broom is one of those pretty rosey-purple cultivars, but has been languishing in some shade. I look forward to watching this plant thrive in the new sunny spot.

When I arrived, I discovered that a special session of the Harwich Crow Council had convened to examine and report on my project (which they did, loudly and at length).

The progress was a little slow at the start, as the temperature was still rather low (I was bundled in four layers) and some of the smaller clumps of sod to be broken up were a little frozen.

One of the nice things about all the trees is at the Eastham place is that we have been spared much in the way of frost yet. Not so in the open front yard in Harwich. It appears I'll be planting just in the nick of time.

I found things thawed pretty quickly as the morning ensued, and eventually I began to make some good progress.

While it's not nice to fool Mother Nature, I also don't appreciate the way she seems to be holding a gun to my head. With that in mind, I decided I could safely abbreviate my plans for the digging this fall, once I'd opened up space on either side of the fence. Two larger "loopy" areas, one at each end, may safely wait 'til Spring, unless inspiration and time to spare present themselves tomorrow (well, later today).

Finishing all the way to the far end of the fence should give me plenty of room for getting everyone in the ground...and if some re-arranging is necessary come Spring, well, that will be fun, too.

These plants are the largest, potentially, and so it made sense to plant them first and deepest along the fence. It was nice to finish with the labor and get to a little of the fun stuff, like deciding how to arrange things.


I'd have loved to stay and do more, but as always lately, there wasn't much time to tarry today, as I kept a steady forward momentum going, on to other tasks, including a pretty late evening at work.



I am looking forward to exploring Harwich once we are settled in. Here's a photo of the Brooks Free Library in town. It strikes me as a very interesting and old building and I particularly look forward to exploring there this winter. In some way, it reminds me of the library I grew up in, which lived in a Revolutionary-era former home of one of the early Dutch settlers in New Jersey. Of course the architecture's not the same at all, but it intrigues me just the same.

I was, honestly, a little horrified to discover that the Town of Harwich has already hung up their Christmas wreaths. They have a quaint nautical feel to them, with the red, green and white lobster buoy, but they appear to be artificial >gasp< greens...and it's just a week too early for my taste.

Returning to Eastham, I made a momentary detour to catch this shot of the swans - and assorted other water fowl - having some fun in the sunshine on Salt Pond, before stopping by the Eastham Turnip Festival (for part of my contribution to the Thanksgiving feast in Long Lake) and then showering and heading for work.