A Little Fall of Rain

A gentle rain was falling as I woke this morning...light, but steadily so. Just the right kind of rain for tender seedlings and new seeds in the ground. And with watering off the schedule, I was able to turn my attention to a few housekeeping details before heading in to work.

The afternoon cleared off and seemed golden and sunny, though I really only saw that through the windows at work. Nonetheless, a warm afternoon like that was a nice follow-up to the morning's rain.

Naturally, things were clouding over again by the time I headed for home. Check out this giant bird that tried to land in front of me on Route 6 this evening.

Actually, you get bonus points if you figured out its actually a giant bird poo on the windshield. (Have a great time in Paris, Torn...)

It was almost drizzly this evening, but not enough to keep me out of the garden. The big fountain of leaves near the center of this photo is my favorite perennial, the garden heliotrope. Although it's not blooming yet, I'll still take this opportunity to wish my Dad a very Happy Birthday!!

Herbalists would chop up the roots for an effective sleep remedy, but I won't let them touch mine. The delicate flowers are so wonderfully scented, I couldn't have spring without them.

You can see one of my sunflowers peaking from behind the fence here, and there's also some daisies to the left and a snapdragon seedling to the right. But for me, the excitement is centered around those little pointy tufts of darker green in front of the heliotrope and behind the white allyssum flowers. This, I believe, is the first sign of butterfly flower, something I tried to carefully transplant from Eastham. I know it doesn't always take to moving, but it's too beautiful...and important to the butterflies...to leave all of it behind.

Here's a not entirely focussed shot on the pink columbine flowers taking shape this week. A breeze kept me from getting a clearer shot, but in the meantime, let me proudly turn your attention to another of my sunflower seedlings, easily keeping pace with this very healthy peony plant!

Oh, I spotted that wascally wabbit out in the garden border this evening. He's (perhap she's) quite large--next time I'll try to get a photo before I do any shooing, but I may have already lost the remaining carnation buds.

Meanwhile, I'm a little troubled by the fact that Spring is getting me in touch with my Inner Fudd. But I'll be working up some sort of plan that doesn't involve a shotgun before I plant the tomatoes outside.

On another front, you may remember my being a little annoyed when I recently discovered that the beautiful slender speedwell is classified as a weed.

Well, this evening, I must submit this bit of evidence to lean in favor of that ruling: this slip of speedwell is making a home high above the floor of the garden, in the joint of our old fence. Pretty impressive, huh? For now, I still find it charming.

And speaking of charming...ladies and gentlemen, what about this pink azalea?

Garden Day

The day got off to a slower start than expected. The new furnace decided to take last night off, so the earlier part of my day off was about huddling around coffee to warm up, and blogging as I waited for the repair guy. A loose connection was discovered and all is well now...grrr...but it took a long hot shower to finally bring me around on being good for anything.

I did finally rake much of the winter's debris out of the garden and the bits of the lawn adjacent to the garden...and then had to take a break as the sky darkened and we had a twenty minute downpour...which was followed by a few minutes of snow flurries.

Finally, thin gold threads of sunlight began to break through the clouds and I was able to return to the task of adding some topsoil to the garden beds. Spread out, the cumulative dirt of seven bags doesn't substantially raise the level of the garden, so that task remains. But it looks nice for spring, so a task well-done.

The grass along the street-side of the garden was sopping wet (it rained pretty hard) though you can't see it in the picture. That's what last year's sneakers are for, though!

Here's the discovery that excited me the most, these tiny red leaves of heliotrope! They are very small at this point (I heart macrofocus!), but I look forward to big things from them. I've had heliotrope grow taller than me, but never in this full sun location which it's bound to love.

This clump of shasta daisy and grape hyacinth foliage is evidence of the Buddy Rule I try to encourage when moving the garden: perennials find a bulb or two as "nursery pot partners" for the travel from one yard to the next.

That way the bulbs travel underground and I disturb them as little as possible and I don't have to deal with twice as many pots.

There are daylilies a-plenty in the border garden. Of course we'll have to wait to see which ones are which. The growth pattern here makes me think of the one I bought at the yard sale last summer, which was yellow...but we'll see.

The pond's been running again for about a week and the fish are beginning to wake up. A frog who traveled from Eastham didn't get around to hibernating, and has now gone on to swamp heaven (I assume there's plenty of flies...), but all the fish seem well.

So, I was standing on the back deck, taking this picture of the tree out back--I think it's an oak, we'll know soon--to show you all the leaf buds getting ready to pop.

I glanced away for a moment, my attention captured by some raindrops on rose vines which didn't photograph well...and I heard a familiar cheee-nk sound from the treetop and saw a single black bird.

And then, the Red-Winged Blackbirds returned from Florida, or wherever it is they go for the cold months. But suddenly, they were back, all of them singing "I feel pretty ", though no one particularly in tune or tempo with anyone else.

I quickly began counting and got to 26 before there was another rustling of wings and their number nearly doubled. They weren't marauding like the starlings do. Each took a branch and stayed there, no doubt enjoying the sun's warm rays before it sank below the horizon, and catching their breath after a long flight. I eventually counted 43.

They were gone again a few minutes later, but it's nice to know they're back and we'll be hearing their songs again.

I picture them all flying off to check in to their trees and branches for the summer season, maybe shaking tiny sheets off of dusty little Adirondack chairs and airing out last year's nests where they remain from winter storms, and starting fresh where they don't.

And so it begins.

Heliotrope

If only I could capture the scent of garden heliotrope (valerian) when I take a picture of it. 

This has got to be one of my favorite perennials. It's sweet, distinctive scent is always a joy to catch on an evening breeze. Because of its tall stalks (over five feet tall in full sun), it's hard to properly get a shot of the whole plant, as it sways in the slightest breeze. Its leaves, though, are lovely and distinctive, and I can never have enough of the stuff!