Spring Morning

The rain continued into last evening, and while the temper ature climbed into the low fifties, it was also very windy through the night.

Still breezy this morning, but its nice and sunny, so even tho we lost about seven degrees as morning arrived, it was nice for adding a few new pansies to the front edges of the border garden.

They are still the only blooms out there just now, but the rain has inspired all kinds of things to begin pushing up out of the ground and unfurling their leaves. This morning I spotted the tiny cut leaves of a columbine plant, another clump of rudbeckia and what look to be some creeping thyme leaves.

Almost April Showers

The last day of March was a gray and showery one.

The rain was never particularly heavy, but a nice sort of drizzle. After a week without rain, the garden looks refreshed. Tiny clumps of leaves pushing their way up from the ground are more obvious with their leaves washed clean.

Today I saw some nice greening on a great variety of things in the border. A clump of rudbeckia here, a new hyacinth shoot there. Phlox. Foxglove. Dianthus and sweet William. Daisies. Leaf buds on rose branches.

I noticed that one clump of crocuses was nibbled down to about half an inch above the soil. I suspect the two bunnies I saw in the yard across the street this evening might be somehow involved, but for now, I'm okay with that. It's always fun to have a garden that's alive, and if that means the occasional plant sacrifice, I'm okay with that. It's called co-existence, eh?

It's still a little showery, and I'm happy to report a rising temperature. We started the day in the mid-thirties, but tonight it is 47 degrees, with possible high fifties forecast for tomorrow.

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.

First Kitty of Spring

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend. I'm glad to say that I've heard the egg hunt made the chaos of the Easter Brunch Buffet a lot more fun...mission accomplished!

In other news, Aunt Pat sent these photos of her cat, Oreo, whom she caught lounging in a basket of daffodils during this first weekend of spring.

Most of the time, kitties really have the right idea, don't they?





Of course, as much as I say the word "spring", I can't get the temperature this morning to rise about 31 degrees! So for everyone who's wishing spring would just hurry up already, check out this garden. Click your mouse on the black field: you can plant in tidy rows, or just create a garden overflowing with colorful chaos!

Enjoy!

Friday

Hey, everybody!! Look, I'm finally back.

Sorry for the impromptu hiatus this week: to paraphrase the immortal Lily Von Schtuppe, I guess I was just tired.

Tired of posting yet another picture of the world on a rainy day. Tired of listening to myself bitch about how slow winter is to let go of us...especially when so many people I know are still dealing with "quality" snow pack. And I was a little tired of putting a bright face on all the challenges this new rental have brought to our lives.

And, too, I was a bit loopy from the fumes. Our "new" furnace (installed on a sunny day in early January, you may recall...) was acting up and leaking fuel oil--we collected the stuff in buckets and had nearly twenty gallons(!!!!!) before the repair guy was able to fix the problem. Since the computer's right near the furnace room, I tried to abbreviate my at-home online time until the situation resolved.

Now, the repairs have been completed--as I understand it (I'm no plumbing/heating expert) there was a fuel oil pump replaced twice, a pinhole leak in a water line, a troublesome water feeder valve and finally a broken wire to one of the thermostats. Our repair guy says he'll be back sometime next week to perform some cleansing rituals and possibly bring a priest along to perform an exorcism (this could explain the rats...), but I'm happy to say as the overnight temps linger in the thirties, that we have heat once more. We were also able to filter and reuse most of the "escaped" fuel oil.

And despite the on-going rain (perhaps because of it, too)spring is slowly creeping in around us. The robins have been back for a few weeks now. Fresh little bits of green are appearing here and there.

This evening, the sun almost came out. Things are definitely looking up.

The arrival of this particular Holy Week has me very thoughtful of late. I'm not a practicing Catholic, but after years of having done so, those traditions and rituals are still burned on my brain for particular dates and occasions. I'm not very churchy, choosing to do the bulk of my worshipping in the garden and in some of nature's more beautiful places. Some of the old traditions don't work for me, while others nestle somewhere deep in my heart.

But lately, I find myself sickened on a somewhat regular basis lately I see people using their "Christian" (quotations to indicate I don't feel they act particularly Christ-like...) values to divide our society into factions, as though their beliefs are superior and could therefore justify hurting or killing people because they don't believe the same things or fit into their peculiar guidelines for what's "acceptable."

I just can't imagine Jesus would be okay with that.

A Bit of Gold

I found this bit of sunshine-y goodness in the witch hazel tree outside the Orleans Chamber of Commerce as I drove by late this afternoon. It was quite a joy to see, and I do wish now that I'd gotten a long shot of it...

...but no, I jumped right in for the close-up. It was not especially warm out there, as the windiness of yesterday continued. The sun was a little higher in the sky, it seemed, thanks to last night's Springing Forward.

Hope you enjoy it like I did, knowing warmer days are on the way!

The Birds Know...

It's 52 degrees this morning. It was just about the same last night. The morning's heavy rains have only just drawn to a close, but they brought with them a hint of seasalt on the morning air.

As the season turns, I'm starting to feel myself drawn outside a little more and for a little longer each time. As the days lengthen and warm, I'm eager to get outside and do some work to tidy up the new garden, like pruning off last year's foliage, which I left to help identify things during the move, and adding some fresh topsoil to dress things up. At the moment, I'm waiting for time off and weather to coordinate, but soon I'll be out there no matter what.

Yesterday morning, for the first time, I spotted a dead tree at the perimeter of the back yard, which has several holes in it, a veritable bird condo.


As I wonder if anyone was already living in this large hollow, a cute little tufted titmouse was lurking around in the tree...either defending his home, or perhaps scoping out a new one.

The birds know that spring is coming, perhaps already here, despite the calendar saying its still a week or two off. They've been singing like crazy the past few weeks, even in heavy snow, their songs resound. Cardinals, woodpeckers, finches, chickadees, titmice.

We humans are now comfortable saying "it'll be here before you know it"...and we're kind of right. The birds know: it's already here.

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.

Springing

Another beautiful day, spent mostly indoors at work. Perhaps the best thing about a garden is coming home to it. Too tired for anything more than a nice wander around after dinner, to see if anything new was happening. Tried out the new pruners, though, beginning what I hope will be a successfully stern conversation with some of the roses on the property.

The ostrich ferns have proper fiddle heads on them now, as they continue to unfurl, and the lilies are taller every time I look. The strawberry vines are blooming, and there's a promising-looking clump of lupines where the garden meets the woods. There are a few spindly low stands of lilacs, exactly where I had been thinking some might be nice. Will add their encouragement to my ever-growing list of gardening pursuits. Found my own evidence of our recently spotted deer neighbors, in the form of cloven hoof prints near what I have decided is indeed an apple tree.

Now, look, a lot of you have written to suggest my plan for the grapevines just isn't a reasonable one. Certainly, they'll require more support than I had originally suggested, and so it's back to the Thinking on that particular front.

The peepers were loud earlier, but seem to have quieted down now as temperatures take an overnight dive. Looks like seeds are germinating in the greenhouse. More on that later.

Here's a lovely clump of primroses blooming behind the house.

 

Let The May-ing Begin

Ahhhh, May Day. How can it possibly be here so quickly? A weekend wet with rain (3 inches in Wellfleet) draws to a close with a lovely sunset. Work kept me away most of the weekend, but there's been time to look, sometimes by flashlight. It's the most exciting time of year, things have grown, it seems, every time you look.

In bloom today we have pansies and violas, a recently planted english daisy (red), daffodils fading, hyacinths, dutch and grape, primroses, dames rocket, forsythia, myrtle and trillium. And all around them the gardens are thriving, spaces filling in (some on their own, some with some subtle direction from this humble gardener)...the show this year will be grand, to be sure.

It's funny, I look forward to the work, and so I'm longing for Thursday, the one day off I can spare this week. There's something about clearing room for plants to grow, to show off a little, and hopefully do their thing and settle in as happily as possible. And it's while I'm weeding that the chickadees fly down to see what I'm up to.

I get to listen to all of their bird brethen exchanging news about weather and wind, predator alerts and birth announcements as I work. Lining the beds, moving the rocks, identifying seedlings, training vines, planting seeds. Getting down in there, my fingers in the dirt, carefully feeling out the persistant grass roots that grow (thankfully not too thickly) in the proposed new garden. I'm keeping an eye peeled for coyotes, as I listen for chickadee babies in the birdhouse nearby.

And I wonder what color the peonies will be from the stalks that seem to be rising in so many places about the yard. The many roses are a mystery, too. As are the irises, the foxglove, the sweet william and so many other things. What colors will they bring to the landscape? I can but imagine.

I want to train the grape vines that are growing haphazardly in the area. I have at least taking them out of the tree...is it apple, or a late cherry, perhaps? Soon we'll see. I was thinking of an arbor, for the grapes, but perhaps some sturdy bamboo tripods would get the vines up high enough to braid them from opposite sides of the path. We'll see. As always, the garden's a never-ending experiment.

There's a new bird in town...quite the fancy song...hard to see clear, as it's sticking to the upper canopy of the back yard. The steep angle makes it tricky, even with binoculars...but my money's on either a female yellow throated warbler...or maybe a female northern parula warbler. Anyway, it's a darned pretty song. An'twill be a damned pretty month!