Seeds For Tomorrow

Mother Nature's being quite kind to us this week, a nice payback for those cold gray days of winter.

Yesterday before work, I boiled down some jalapenos to make a spicy spray to coat the remaining crocuses, daffodils and such, in hopes of warding off the Nibblers, whomever they may be. Before applying that, I watered the garden border for the first time this spring...since its suddenly been a little while since it rained last.

I also spread some allyssum seeds along the front edges of the the border and got those watered in. I will probably get a few seedlings at the nursery, anyway, 'cause I just don't think you can have enough of the stuff. But, I also used the allyssum seeds primarily around where the crocuses have come, as a way of marking their location for my reference later in the season...like when I want to plant other bulbs in the same area.

Here's the Little King lounging in the laundry room yesterday. I sort of set this up, by putting an old throw pillow in my now- chocolate-free Easter basket.

It didn't take him long at all to find the comfort in it. The laundry room has many windows, so its a favorite bird watching spot for Agent LaChat.

I've recently spotted (as I'm sure he has, as well)the first goldfinches of the season out in the apple tree, and hope to also hang out some orange halves, as the orioles should be arriving shortly. And this weekend I really MUST get that big bird bath set up.


Today was a day off, and also reason for cele bration as we had a handyman visit this morning to replace the defective valve which decides when and if we get hot water. Since it has recently been deciding against our having hot water, this is terribly good news.

As a bonus, I spent the day with Mom and Dad, touring around Route 28, visiting various stores and shops, having lunch and enjoying one another's company some more.

As a garden-warming present, they bought me a new watering can and some packets of seeds for the season ahead. I also priced soaker hoses at assorted locations and found one for $6.99 at the Christmas Tree Shop(of course!), and also picked up a few more packets of seeds.

I'm waiting on the appearance of assorted lilies before I'll lay out the soaker hose, so I can arrange it properly without accidentally digging up anything important. I'm sure it'll be the most efficient way to keep this full-sun garden well-watered this summer.

As for those seeds, I'll be working with Morning Glories (in assorted colors), Bachelor Buttons (in what appears to be a matching color assortment), some California Giant Zinnias (the same species I photographed last fall in another gardener's plot), purple Cleome, some Seashell Cosmos, and also some German chamomile.

Most of these can be direct sown into the garden, but not for a while yet(last frost the last few years has come right around Memorial Day for us). I think I'll start some cleome seedlings to give some of them a headstart...and the same with the morning glories. In advance of that, and a new planting of sunflower seeds I've got in mind, I sat down tonight and made two new trays full of paper pots, which I'll get planted in the next day or so.

I've also now transplanted all the sunflower seedlings from the first planting into larger pots and my south-facing bedroom window is becoming quite full.

Oh, check this out:

This fabulous blossom caught my eye yesterday morning in the bleeding heart bush.

It took only a split-second to realize this was no bleeding heart flower, though, but a clever ruse planted by my Loving Other Half as a surprise. His long history of practical jokes includes having wired fake flowers onto roses finished blooming to fool Provincetown tourists, back when he lived on Commercial Street, so I wasn't a bit surprised. But I did get a good laugh...and those are always welcome in the garden.

You can see there'll be no shortage of real bleeding heart blooms in a very short time, from all the bud clusters pinking up. For now, though, I've left this Fool's Flower of April to play with anyone else who happens by.

Sunny Monday

At the feet of the arbor vitae (I think that's what it is...I'll look more closely in the morning) by the back yard gate is a nice spread of creeping myrtle, or vinca. Over the past week, blue flowers have been quietly unfurling from its carpet of shiny green leaves. Here they are in the early morning sunshine.

I found this tiny spider in the box of dryer sheets and shook him out into the garden this morning. I'll probably need a clearer shot for identification, but I'll see what I can find out and get back to you.

Here are some of the chewed tulips. It looks like they've not begun to show their flower stem, so perhaps that's not been short-circuited. I have some fresh ideas about how I might go about discouraging this. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, you can see the daylilies towering over the nibbled tulips, with some sword-shaped siberian iris leaves shooting up near the feet of a rose bush. I'm not entirely sure from this vantage what that unfocused stuff is, sweet William, maybe.

Don't be too sad about the tulips, though. Many more things are being spared by the mystery muncher(s). The hyacinths are coming into bloom finally and adding a nice splash of color here and there in the border. Some of the crocuses are still doing their thing, too...and I spotted the first signs of some grape hyacinth flowers poking up.

I met up with Mom and Dad for dinner again tonight and we enjoyed some great Chinese take-out, before enjoying a walk down to the beach and back. We were a little late for full-on sunset...but the angle from that particular beach isn't quite right for it, either. Still, it was nice. Very peaceful.

Too peaceful, in fact, to only tell you about it.

I dedicate this to anyone who's Monday maybe treated them poorly, or anyone who's looking to find a moment or two of serenity as they make their way through the week.

Take a deep breath, make sure your volume's on...and enjoy!

Whatta Day...

Heading into work this foggy morning, I saw yet another sign of spring, as this road sweeper appeared out of the mist. It was a delightful ride, as the sun began to poke through the thinning clouds overhead.

Accepting the fact that the hungry bunnies are enjoying the crocuses in the home garden (and honestly, how can I blame them for taking advantage of a new thing...it's like I opened a restaurant just for them. I'll try additional protections and also a little faith that they'll find things to nibble elsewhere as the season unfolds.), I knew I'd need to find other ways to celebrate the Festival of St. Crocii...and there's a front yard in Brewster which had caught my eye recently. By the time I arrived there, the sun was growing stronger...and there was a wonderful show of crocuses, with a few daffodils and glory of the snow thrown in as a bonus.



Man, a spread like that is every bulb gardener's dream, huh? Something about a great colony of bulbs like this just makes my heart sing! (Wild things, I think I love you...)


The work day was seasoned with a variety of great responses to the 100 List, which was fun (if you haven't read it yet, just scroll on down)...and a steadily rising temperature only sweetened the pot!

First it was 55, incomparably delightful in its own right. And then 58...and then 63, 64...back down to 63 again...and finally, a high of 65 right around dinnertime! Woo freaking hoo!!

Above left is a pair of the crocuses which have someone gone uneaten, and aren't they lovely. And I leave you with some glorious late afternoon sun on one of my favorite pansies.

Floating Garden

Rain overnight has brought fresh flood waters to the garden bed out front, making yesterday's new crocus look a little more like a water lily this morning.

I'm happy to see that it's less of an issue than earlier in the year, thanks to my efforts to raise the level of the garden a little...but I can see there's still a section that needs work.

Even if I raise the bed level, there's still the issue of the flooding in front of it. This could work to actually water the garden, I suppose. Many of the plants here had relations who grew nicely in the meadow in Eastham, which flooded every spring...so I might not have too much to worry about, in regard to loss. But there are a few things which could suffer, so I'm hoping to find time to address this issue soon...especially with a month of April showers potentially stretching out before us.

One idea I'm considering is running gravel-lined channels diagonally through the bed, which might serve the garden, irrigation-wise. We'll see. I'm not settled on a plan yet, and I am still waiting to see where certain plants emerge as spring progresses (I didn't have time to diagram where everything ended up in the fall)...and the flooding issue does make it hard to think about installing the soaker hose I'm intending to utilize here.

There was a big Crow Council Meeting in the trees out back late this afternoon, despite continuing shower-y-ness.

I could hear both red-winged blackbirds and crows in the mix, and who knows who else might've been in attendance...it was hard to see them clearly.

I can't help but wonder what it is they discuss. Weather forecasts, windspeeds, where the new bird feeders and bird baths are this year, if something can be done about the gulls and the hawks...who knows?

In any case, the meeting broke up before long, perhaps due to the brown dog barking in the yard below. I'm impressed to see that there are nearly a hundred or maybe more birds in the cloud they made as they took off. Maybe the birds have Town Meeting, too.

Silly birds, everyone knows it's impossible to have an even-slightly productive meeting late on a Friday afternoon.

My guess is they were just meeting up to head off to the local watering hole for Happy Hour at the end of a long bird week.

Must Be Thursday...

Here's some proof I was actually up to see the sunrise today.

After we'd finished the breakfast event, I walked down the parking lot to enjoy this colony of Glory of the Snow (chionodoxia) which blooms a little more grandly with each year at the edge of the driveway.


This little heather, with the big pink color, was the best part of gassing up the car this afternoon. $3.15 a gallon. I wonder if I can adapt my car to run on a giant rubber band if I twist it up real tight before I hit the road. Although, I have to say, my Saturn ION seems to get pretty great mileage.

Returning home, I discovered a few of the new crocuses I planted in the fall have begun to bloom. This was the nicest of the bunch.

Inside, the forcing of apple branches is proceeding nicely, with leaves unfurled and blossom buds almost ready to open. You can see down in the corner that my African violet is continuing to bloom great guns.

Awakenings: A Taste To Tease Us

It's spring, we know that. The birds remind us all the time...and around us, in the grass, the gardens, the trees, we can see a little more green every day. But the temperatures have been staying low, in the high thirties mostly.

So it was with great joy that we realized today that the temperature was rising and the wind was dying off. By five the afternoon, our thermometors clamored a proud 51 degrees. Hats were stuffed into pockets, jackets were shed. There was basking.

First-year bulbs (planted the previous fall) always bloom a little later than they will once fully established, so the crocuses at home haven't begun their show yet. However, these have been blooming outside the Jailhouse for years and today joined us in the brief celebration of warmth.

Temps will fall tonight again, and there's talk of both rain and snow (no accumulation, they say...) for tomorrow and Friday. But today, we basked, dreaming of things to come.

***

Hey, have you visited Pale Male recently? I just love watching these birds take on Manhattan.

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!

Sunny Spring Saturday

Saturday brought some heartening signs of the Spring. I just love the way robins behave...they way they stick their heads up in the air, standing still and listening, and then lowering their heads to dart forward, running across the grass.

I watched this robin this morning doing just that in the front yard, and then, when he got to the edge of the garden, he just stopped and sort of sat there. No doubt, he was soaking up the sun's warmth, but I also believe the robins had fled for southern climes when I created the garden here last fall...so he might've been taking stock of the changed landscape, too.

I suppose there's a slight chance that he was admiring all the little clusters of crocus foliage which are coming up here and there at the front of the beds. I think we'll see our first blossoms in the coming week!

Here's a hyacinth, just emerged from the warming soil. Although it was still a bit breezy today, the sun was nice and warm in sheltered spots and generally, it was a great day to be outside.

As it turned out, my schedule for the day allowed me to take a few breaks here and there to accomplish assorted non-work stuff. Around noontime I found myself in Eastham to do some banking.

I couldn't resist a drive-by the old place, and was happy to see that all the recent rain have done wonders to restore the pond to its former levels. I'm sure our old duck pals are quite pleased. I wonder if the buffleheads showed up again this spring.

I saw this swan as I drove by the Herring Pond and stopped to take his picture, and also to peek into the herring run to see what sort of activity there might be. Though the herring haven't yet made their appearance, there's an abundance of small fry darting through the shallow waters...and sometimes getting sucked over the little waterfalls made by the old wooden ladders.

Happily, my late afternoon appoint ments wrapped up in time to visit Skaket Beach for the sunset, before dashing about for a few Easter-related items.

This evening I boiled and dyed a couple dozen eggs, which I decorated with the names of everyone who'll be working serving and waiting for the madness which is Easter Brunch Buffet tomorrow. I hid them all over the restaurant, which will hopefully make working on the holiday a little more fun. The eggs came out looking pretty great, and I was sorry to realize later that I'd forgotten to take some pictures of them.

Faith Rewarded

The garden move is always a little stressful on plants, though for the most part, I've had some terrific success. I was a little extra-concerned about them through this past winter (lingering still, it seems), when I discovered the garden site I'd chosen was a little bit of a flood zone.

But I've noticed this week that things seem to have come through just fine. This morning, I spotted this clump of tulip foliage.

Many of these tiny little crocus tips are beginning to emerge all along the border of the garden.

Elsewhere, I'm recognizing the foliage of daisies and daylilies and irises and sedums all adding little bits of green to the dark and dull earth tones of the garden at winter's end.

This evening I began to clear away the dead foliage of the garden residents, to encourage them as the season begins. Tomorrow I'll be spending some more time tidying things up out there and if the weather allows, I'll add a fresh layer of topsoil to start the season off right.

Now that the days are a little bit longer, Em and I have begun a nightly Walk Around the Block routine. She has not always been the easiest dog to walk, but seems to have mellowed in more recent years. We've been enjoying watching the sun sink behind the trees, as the moon appears in the sky.

But I need to get larger baggies.

Bulbs Emerging

Daffodils and crocuses outside the Old Jailhouse Tavern in Orleans.

A Few Signs of Spring

Even the most well-tended gardens can look a little discouraging in winter's depths, and that goes doubly for gardens which were somewhat hastily transplanted before winter came home. So I've been focussing my attention elsewhere, in hopes of speeding along the season.

But today, I saw signs of things to come, like these first sprouts of crocuses...

...and this clump of daylilies beginning to green up...

...and this tiny sprig-let of yarrow (coronation gold!). And there's a daylily that spent the winter in its pot that's doing quite nicely, too.