Funky Dunky

 

Miss Charlotte, the delight of any camera in sight

It’s said she’d rather snooze than beautify,

As her low key contenance rather delights her humans.

 

She may know her given name if it’s to her advantage,

And much of her is as one imagines,

As she disappears - the rest of the day – hidden – not here.

 

She vanishes within herself with that long empty stare.

A mystery not waiting to be solved.

She’s her own being living in middle-class luxury.

 

A tricky balance, not rocking the boat,

Giving affection one pinch at a time,

Seeking the contentment of solitude,

In an environment of multitudes.

I’m thinking, more or less, that sums it all up,

Meeting half way in all there is to say.

 

She’s an enigima - someone’s darling in her long, lost past,

Another one's darling in present tense,

She is Miss Charlotte - and that's one hundred percent enough.

Very little of the garden this time around, as we are having to work out the kinks of giving our terrier a good quality of life before we must let him go.  It’s been tiring searching for food he will eat that doesn’t cause more problems with his kidneys.

My phone camera sometimes refuses to take a photo until I go out of camera mode, then back in.  Other times it wants me to do something it has picked out, instead of the choice I have picked out.  It’s very exasperating arguing with that darn thing.

Blooms have come and gone without a photo to record the event; but that’s life, isn’t it.  Most days are filled with so much rain, we’ve had to do our pruning in between all the storms of the day.

Charlotte’s macro photos came out nicely, but I think I must increase the pixel rate on the telephoto ones, like the grey squirrel.  The quality of its photographed fur leaves much to be desired.  I haven’t used a regular camera for so long, I’m having to reteach myself how to work the “Pro” App.  At least when I use focus, green appears around the subject when it’s at its best.

The first cicadas of the season have begun digging themselves out of the ground, and climbing up any plant nearby to shed their exoskeleton before drying out and flying up into the trees for courtship time.  I briefly saw one today as it tested out its wings with a few buzzes, then flew up into the canopy.  It was only about an inch long.

Watched a newly appearing lady bug, still in its yellow phase, stretch its wings out a few times, then have the audasity to fly off before I could photograph it well.  A small snail traveling in creep mode, became a small snail not traveling in squashed mode, when I totally forgot in my hurriedness where it was.  I feel a tiny bit bad about that one.

The Sweetspire is the darling of the Carpenter Bees, and amid all that buzzing one might think a few photos would follow below, BUT... with sunshine in one's eyes it was a lost cause.  I had to be content watching all the tiny shadows buzzing around on the ground.

I'm calling it a day, as I'm working without my laptop; writing at a computer whose chair hates me profoundly.  The laptop's at the doctor to see if it will go into it's chaotic phase for him.  Circles popping up and disappearring just as fast, then word documents opening in differeent size windows, layering upon each other as the circles are still dancing about, then... well, it goes on and on and on.  I have a little monster on my hands, clearly possessed.

How beautiful are the rosy footsteps of May! Less showery and changeful than April, and not so heated and burdensome as June, she stands like a gentle mediator between the two... With her soft blue eye, and her mild but radiant countenance, she comes like an angel of light among men... She scatters in her path the sweetest flowers of nature, and everywhere breathes fragrance and joyousness. The birds of the air are carolling her welcome, and even the mute beasts of the field seem happier at her coming. ~"May," Eliza Cook's Journal, 1850

This about says it all with my garden this year.  

Stay happy and safe and full of love.

Itea virginica 'Saturnalia' (Sweetspire)

 Clematis Venosa Violacea.

Dustin

This Post Is Linked To:

Saturday's Critters

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

My Corner of the World

In the chill of an early morning in April

 

In the chill of an early morning, damp with an earlier passing rain shower, a huge crane fly hugs the door jam while the lady of the garden passes through quietly to not disturb the gentle being.  She’s aware of the errant ways of the Virginia creeper’s tendrils rushing to claim new territory crossing beneath the overgrowth of earlier risers, and yet she carelessly stumbles without a tumble as one has just tried to trip her.

It is a day of promised work, so she dallies about the paths with her new companion… a cane.  The dandelions have rushed into bloom, dropped their petals, and seeds dispersed in the March storms.  The second flush of blooms have met the April showers with the same exuberance as the first, while their upward smiling faces greet any honeybee passing by.

While the dandelions are as tough as nails, another nonnative has suffered badly in the early March week of twenty-degree mornings.  The lily stems are lying on the ground, stunted and deformed… a miracle they have survived at all.  Another early spring like this one will surely see them meet their demise.

Crane Flies, large and small, hug the north wall of the house; waiting for the day to begin it’s warming up.  A very short season for the species tulips, as the lovely fuchsia petals are already turning a crisp brown along the edges.  She will miss them.  They are a favorite of hers.

Back in the warm house, she changes into jeans and an olive-green wool sweater with a zipper down on each side around the hip area.  It was meant to be a warm casual evening out sweater, but there are no evenings out anymore, so she wears it as a work sweater in the garden.  It suits her with her uncut frizzy hair twisted in the back, pinned in place.

She’s a site that can make one’s eyes sore, but she tries to ignore that part of her faltering beauty and embrace all that crepe that drapes on her so well.  She’ll be spending the afternoon weeding, and hopefully taking a break by June.  April, indeed, has begun her quest to return the best of laid out gardens back to nature.

Barricade to keep cats off the plant table at night. 

After several weeks, no more barricade is needed.

Crane Fly

'Little Beauty' species tulip

Shooting Star

Eastern Red Columbine

Fothergilla gardenii Shrub

American Dogwood

Spring ephemeral, Dicentra cucullaria, Dutchman's britches

Maybe this year it will bloom... maybe.

Trillium cuneatum,

sometimes called Little Sweet Betsy

Orange Eyed Fly,

scavenger of small carrion

Tennessee Land Snail

Virginia Bluebell

Pink buds, 

wrinkled flower petals opening up, 

and fully opened bluebells.

Baby Trillium on right bottom of photo, 

tucked under the Bluebell leaves.

Since the Trilium patches are in the back meadow area, 

ants have collected trillium seeds and brought them back to their nests, 

where they eat the strophioles and discard the seeds.

This is the first year it has a flower.

 it can take up to two years for fresh seed to germinate, 

and another five to seven years for plants to bloom.

Wild Hyacinth

Not native to this area 

Not easy to dig out through the roots of other plants, so it's left in place.

Eastern Redbud tree trunk with flower buds

Pallida Balmatica Iris

The fragrance of Concord Grape juice fills the air around it.

Erigeron pulchellus, commonly known as robin’s plantain.

A biennial that usually dies after it sets seed.

Allegheny Spurge growing with 'Tokudama' Hosta

Blackhaw Viburnum

No longer know the name of this pretty clematis, 

which is sometimes tinged with pale pink or green.

Pupa attached to outside door, maybe a Hover Fly.

Wild Petunia, Ruellia humilis

Copper Iris, Iris fulva, in rain garden

Leucauge venusta, Orchard Orbweaver Spider

"My Mary' Azalea, very fragrant

Tulip-tree Beauty Moth (Epimecis hortaria)

About 2 1/2" wingspan

From the back deck

- Please bear with me until and through this coming summer when I will have cataract surgery on my right eye.  In the meantime, I'm having a bit of difficulty with the quality of my photographs, and catching all the annoying errors in my writing.   

I'm a bit wobbly on my feet on uneven surfaces, possibably from the peripheral neuropathy... I'm not sure.  Falling has become a huge concern for me these days in the garden where the paths are not flat or made of rock instead of stepping stones.  I feel like my husband has become a helicopter husband, always hovering over me.  Drives me crazy.

This post is linked to:

Saturday's Critters

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

My Corner of the World