Saturday, April 13, 2019

Life among the Wild and Weedy

Current photos of myself on this blog are non-existent because...well...because I'm OLD; and too often when I view one it triggers me into blowtorch mode to cremate that little sucker to a pile of lovely black cinders; but I do know how to laugh at myself once in a while :)

I've been sick, then half sick, and now trying to get whole sick again.  Pain management for my neck is a bitch, and one of my teeth that I've invested a fortune in to keep healthy is giving me a problem.  I've been out of it most of the time dragging my feet, so this is all she writes, kaput, nada, zip, zap, zilch!  I'm going to bed.                   




Clematis (name unknown) - a ground creeper that doesn't climb
 by wrapping tendrils around thin supports.
  Wove it through the trellis so my knees get a break
 from crying bloody murder when I crawl on the ground to view it. 








American Honeysuckle - flower buds reaching for the sun -
in dappled shade with sunshine part of day.





Clematis growing along the ground with splashes of dirt from last nights rain.





Yellow Trillium with a pet slug 








Foamflower - Pink Brushes


Merrybells - Large-flowered Bellwort 
a demure beauty


Pallida Dalmatica - Grape-scented iris from year 1597. 
 Haven't quite figured out it's true scent, not like grape juice,
 more like grape flavored candy...maybe.  Since it is an older variety,
 it has smaller flowers on taller stems that do not need support to stay upright. 


Blackhaw Viburnum - each flower in this bunch will turn into a berry of blue.


Another batch of red trillium, although it is blooming later than the first with smaller flowers, so I think it is another type.


Little Sweet Betsy Trillium
Aging flowers turning bronze on first batch of red trillium to bloom.


He may not know most weeds from a hole in the ground,
 but he's my right hand man.
Love him!


American Dogwood - each of these flower centers
 develops into small red berries after the petals fall off. 
Their viewing time is short-lived if the birds find them.


Heuchera americana - Coralbells
with sunlight bringing out the color on the leaf's underside.


American Coralbells that are not hybrids.
  These are all from the same batch,
yet different from each other...lovely.











With flower stalks, getting ready to bloom its tiny flowers.


Redbud Tree - with flowers blooming in clumps along all the larger branches and trunk.


This yard work is easing my right foot into the grave
 quicker than I had envisioned.
  I think mother nature has it right:  Welcome everything,
then let them fight it out to the death.

I need a rest.






Monday, April 1, 2019

April Fools

Welcome to wildlife gardening; where the only things wild in my wilderness surrounded by acres upon acres upon acres of urban sprawl seems to be songbirds, the birds that eat the songbirds, cats cats cats, and the wild woolly wind blowing through my hair.  I would shed a tear, but it is what it is, and a whimper changes nothing.

Finishing my photo session this morning was short lived as being in the gardens today is akin to camping out in my frosty refrigerator with just a blanket of filmy saran wrap to comfort me, and praying someone hurries up and opens that dang door to let the warmer air rush in.  I finally was driven, surrounded by too much sunshiny chill, to make a hasty retreat to that man-made warmth I crave so much when the temps are below 60 degrees.

The gardens have awakened from winter rest, and while the first blooms make one’s heart exuberant, the first weeds on a rush to win the Spring Madness Marathon make one’s body cry bloody murder at all that weeding mayhem that will last until winter is again upon us.  Please remind me again why I thought all those years ago this was such a grand idea; this idea that would eventually be the beginning of my achy breaky body downfall :’(




Little Beauty Tulip - the only tulip that comes back every year in the garden






Fothergilla






Clusiana Tulip with it's grape center - opening up on a sunny day








Closing up at end of day






Sometimes gardening's a slight headache


Non-native Bleeding Hearts




Golden Alexanders









Virginia Bluebells




Little Sweet Betsy Trillium
rescued from work
 when wildflower garden was removed for new visitor's center 









Jacob's Ladder






Celandine Poppy


Shooting Star




Native Dogwood in early stages of bloom before turning white at maturity






Spring Beauty growing among native Coral Bells
Flowers of Spring Beauty close up at night




Eastern Red Columbine









Fern and Moss Garden









Blueberries







Thank goodness we aren't human!

  >*-*<  cool kitties


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