Midge Fly

Cup of this tiny narcissus, 'April Tears' is about 1/4 inch wide 

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

     - William Wordsworth 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Both of these are Tulipa 'Generaal de Wet, Fragrant Single Early Tulip

A descendant of the 'Prince of Austria' Tulip, 1904, 

Taraxacum officinale, Common Dandelion

I touched, and all the seeds became airborne.

Tulipa humilis Little Beauty

This little beauty returns every spring in the gardens.

Adiantum pedatum - Maiden Hair Fern

Leaves Unfurling

Mine is in a double-walled pot on the front porch.  It stays there year around.

    

Rain Garden with Iris fulva, Copper Iris

and

Thuja occidentalis 'Rheingold', common name: Rheingold Arborvitae

This Arborvitae forms what is called a bird's nest when it ages.

The center becomes bare surrounded by green foliage.

The foliage is bronze during winter. 

My volunteer Dogwood Tree has suffered - 

perhaps from Cicada damage last summer.

The lowest branches have only leaves, the next level of branches appear dead,

and all flowers appear only on the top levels of branches.

Grace Note Chimes 30" long

'Himalayan Echo'

I'm in physical therapy to hopefully build up my neck and shoulder muscles, therefore, much of the time I feel as if I'm going to die, but of course I don't.

I think that's enough with the health reports :)  Nursery pots of Blue-stem Goldenrod and Pink Muhly Grass impatiently wait on my back deck for the weather to cooperate or not with their planting.  Most likely it will be or not.

A brief period of respite in the deluge of falling rain has allowed a walk through the back gardens.  Wildflowers are slowly coming into their glory, and the closer one gets, the better one sees their individual charms.

A beautiful mocking bird eats at my feeder and sings his lovely array of mocking sounds in my gardens.  I hope he finds a mate and nests here as they used to do many years ago.  I miss the night singing, and the raising of baby birds in the 'Grey Owl' juniper.

My introduction in the past years of my chickadees has probably been incorrect, so the chickadees I really have are Carolina Chickadees (Poecile carolinensis).  The Chickadee nesting box has a moss nest in it that is empty with a piece of egg shell on the ground underneath, therefore I have no idea at this moment what has happened, if anything.  The nest looks unused.

The texture and flavor of the St. Dalfour fruit spreads has changed over the Covid Years, and it is not a pleasurable experience anymore having it with my almond nut butter and crackers.  

We have also suffered many wasted hours trying to find canned cat food our cats will actually eat.  The flavors and brands they ate before Covid seems to never be available or no longer exist.  The 'Tiki Cat After Dark' brand they now eat is temporarily out of stock everywhere, it seems.  I get so tired of searching, and seeing that bloody phrase.

The wet earth has a heavy richness that creates a beautiful tapestry as it slips ever so softly into the bosom of darkness.  House finches change places with a pair of cardinals at the feeder, as traffic stays plenteous along the streets.  It's April, although some days seem as if March is still with us with her blustery winds of icy coldness.

I can't seem to make my life this week sound even remotely interesting, so I'm calling it a night and walking away from this incompetent computer.   

Stylophorum diphyllum, Celandine Poppy

Erigeron, commonly called Fleabane

Large patches of this have popped up everywhere in the back gardens.

It's a beautiful 'weed' while blooming, and attracts the smaller bees.

Mertensia virginica, Virginia Bluebells

Fothergilla gardenii shrub

with a honey fragrance when the air is warm and still.

Polemonium reptans, Jacob's Ladder

Uvularia grandiflora, Larger Bellwort

Trillium cuneatum, sometimes called Little Sweet Betsy

Armoracia rusticana, Horseradish

maybe -

I thought this was a horseradish plant 

when it appeared in the garden many years ago.

It isn't aggressive and doesn't multiply,

causing me to wonder if it's something else.

Aquilegia canadensis, Wild Columbine

Stages of unopened flowers

Dicentra spectabilis, sometimes called Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts

Mine grow on higher ground with intermittent shade.

They do well, and last longer if the ground doesn't dry out.

By midsummer they have disappeared for the year.

Canis lupus familiaris, Rat Terrier 'Dustin'

Sweet Dreams

This Post Linked To:

Saturday's Critters

My Corner of the World

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

That Inferno Lovingly Called August

Air-Conditioned Bliss

It’s that time of year in my neck of the country when the asphalt street traveling past my house is in frying pan mode ready to sauté my doggies tootsies on a short walk, and the sun bathed greenery weeps and wilts when the last rain was more than a week ago.

 

When one walks to the garden hose sprinkling the baked earth to cool it off in the high humidity 95 degree weather that feels more like 105 degrees, and sweat immediately begins trickling down their back and behind, it’s that time of year when August is here.

Cardinal feather in birdbath

Spicebush unripen berries

Spicebush ripened berries

Clematis with seed heads

"Hot Lips" Turtlehead Plant next to Joe Pye Weed that is going to seed.

Clematis with Beautyberry and its unripen fruit.

Effects of drought behind flower.

Ground beneath juniper with tiny juniper berries

 and scale-like fallen needles

Natures been harsh with this beautyberry and her unripen fruit,

but she was planted by birds and has survived many years.

Clematis "Corinne" second flowering in August.

Flowers are about 3" in diameter.

A type of Hover Fly, I think.

Cicada wing in birdbath.

The cicada was probably a snack for a visiting bird.

Echinacea purpurea going to seed

I no longer know this native sunflowers name.

It was the only survivor of three plants,

and has come back year after year.  

It struggles a bit in the prairie garden.

Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera) growing in large pot with Aster Paten.

It will eventually have purple blooms along with the lavender aster flowers.

Of the many I planted in a sunny spot in the garden,

only one is growing this year (about 18" tall).

Since they all grew last year, 

I'm sure Vic accidently pulled them up with the weeds :'(

He says not true - I say 'tis true.

The potted plant is 5' tall and very happy.

Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa)

 with flowers and immature seed pods

Leucauge venusta, commonly called orchard spider, is an orb weaver spider

Viburnum Winterthur berries in their white phase.

They will turn pink, then blue as they mature.

Least Skipper Butterfly or Delaware Skipper Butterfly, maybe.  

It's a skipper, but skippers drive me crazy trying to identify one.

  So many different types.

Lacey keeping tabs on me.

I seem to have nothing to say...

…so, a sweet poem written by a farmer who loved a little creature of nature.  It's said this little tyke will lull the calm into refreshing sleep, and lure the tense into that vortex of repetitious sound that leads to insanity.  What do you think?

An August Cricket

                  by Arthur Goodenough

When August days are hot and long,

      And the August hills are hazy,

And clouds are slow and winds also,

      And brooks are low and lazy.

When beats the fierce midsummer sun,

      Upon the drying grasses;

A modest minstrel sings his song

      To any soul that passes.

A modest, yet insistent bard

      Who while the landscape slumbers;

And nature seems, herself asleep,

      Pours out his soul in numbers.

His song is in a tongue unknown,

      Yet those, methink, who hear it

Drink in it's healing melody

      Renewed in frame and spirit.

His life is brief as is the leaf

      To summer branches clinging!

But yet no thought of death or grief,

      He mentions in his singing.

No epic strain is his to sing, -

      No tale of loss or glory, -

He has no borrowed heroines,

      His heroes are not gory.

He is no scholar; all he knows

      Was taught by his condition,

He never studied synthesis,

      Nor simple composition.

His lays are all of rustic themes;

      Of summer's joys and treasure

Yet scarce could Homer's masterpiece,

      Afford us keener pleasure.

I think the kerplunk of the wheel driving over the manhole cover, 

says it all.

I'm running on empty.

It's break time to finish my room of peace and quiet,

 although Vic added a television

which is not usually associated with peace and quiet.

I'm considering calling it The Robin's Nest, 

as a robin's nest is usually a place of safe haven.

Take care.

This post is linked to:

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

My Corner of the World

Saturday's Critters