Hope

I am hopeful that with the sun and warmer temperatures

Snow will soon be melted 

Peas will be planted 

Annie will have warm toes 

And crocus will be found in the lawn. 

It won't be long now...I hope.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - March 2011

While the sun was out Saturday I took a few pictures of the flowers blooming in my garden for today. Carol encourages us all to post what flowers are blooming on the 15th of each month. I have few to report today. What is blooming I am so pleased to see.  Like this Lady in Red Hellebore.

This freckled one I have forgotten the name of but I think those freckles are so cheery.

This one is sort of plain but it has such a sweet delicate quality belying the toughness of the plant. After all its leaves are green all winter. Just needing a little trim of the dead leaves to be able to fully enjoy their bashful blossoms.

We have some of the Prince at the top of this photo with buds set. It wants a little warmer weather before it opens all these buds. Not so with the crocus. All it needed was a little sun to encourage them to open. Look at the bottom of this picture. Why it's....

My first pollinator of the year. Yipee. I just know it won't be long now until the garden is buzzing.

Is there anything blooming and/or buzzing in your garden yet?

Wonderful Wednesday

You probably think that I have fallen off the planet.  No, the opposite is true. I have been out in the garden working like a Trojan.  My Dearly Beloved has been driven by this warmer than usual March weather and we have been doing our weeding/mulching. Yes, 6 truck loads of mulch have been applied so far. That means that all beds that have been mulched have also been weeded.  Bushes moved and trimmed.  Even Luna thinks there has been just too much outside activity. It is difficult to keep up.

I am so pleased with everything so far.  I mean how can you even be angry with the henbit and dandelions that are popping up everywhere when you know that it means warm weather is on its way.
The later hellebores are now blooming. Red Lady is blooming for the first time.  I think she is going to be great in a few years when she fills out more.

The freckled helleores are one of my favorites though.

Another favorite of spring is the wild flower Spring Beauty. Of course it lives up to its name especially when they are well established in a lawn or flower bed and they look like a pink carpet. Gail wrote a beautiful post about these Spring Beauties as her Wildflower Wednesday post. I think you would enjoy reading it if you pop over here.

It is just marvelous to have so many colors in the garden now.

The daffodils cover most hues of yellow.

Then of course the crocus want to get into the act.

And what would spring be without a few tulips.  We are talking few here too. I must put them on my list for next fall. These little beauties used to be about a foot tall.  Now they barely peek over the grass.

I hope you all have been able to be out in the garden some this spring. I can say it is a delightful antedote to a long hard winter. I hope there are lots of promise in your garden now that spring has arrived.

What is showing promise in your garden now?

Eventful Sunday In and Out of the Garden

Our Sunday began as it usually does with a bird watching outing. We went to a place we don't often go to see water fowl. In this area is also a Bald Eagles nest. We stopped to see if the couple had taken up nest keeping for the year and we weren't disappointed. One of the adults was sitting tight in the nest as it swayed in the wind.

I zoomed out so you could see that the other adult was loafing above the nest. Keeping an eye on what was going on. You can see it in the upper right of the picture below.

After birding we went home and I checked the various crocus bunches to see if any were abloom. I wasn't disappointed here either. This sweet little crocus is named Lady Killer. It certainly is pretty with its spot of purple on the white petals.

Here, you can see it a little better in this photo.Looking down on it with the flower all the way open you can't see the purple on the bloom.

There are several groups of the large yellow crocus blooming now. The lavender striped crocus are abloom.We have some solid purple crocus but they aren't even budding yet. I wonder when they will show their pretty heads. This photo brings me to the helebores. Yes, look closely there is a tiny bud, middle left, in this picture of an Ivory Prince helebore.

I am not sure what this helebore is. It has a beautiful white bloom. It might be Ivory Prince too. This helebore with its shades of lime green on the bloom is not Ivory Prince but I am not sure what it is name is. It has deeply serrated leaves. This is the helebore that I thought was going to die because it was under the pine tree that came down last winter. Its companions were stomped to death when the men took the pine tree out. This brave little soul hung on and is blooming beautifully.
Speaking of storms. A terrible thunderstorm blew through here during the afternoon. There were tornadoes south and north of town. We were lucky that we only had a gust of wind at 92mph. Our only damage was when the neighbors fence had three of the panels come down. That wind actually broke the metal brackets holding the panels. I guess we were lucky that they didn't fly through the windows of our house. One of them broke a couple of pickets out of our fence. Easy fix. We feel lucky.

I hope you all had a good weekend and that you have a successful week ahead.

Skywatch Friday

Aaaahhhh those beautifu clearl blue skies of winter. Doncha just love em?? Not only are the Snowdrops loving these beautiful skies and warmer temps...

A few of the yellow crocus are popping up by the patio.
Out under the Ash tree the narcissus are popping up. Yep, I think everyone is ready for spring.I hope you have a wonderful weekend and for more Skywatching you can go here.

Snow Caps

We went from the watery world of spring rains to Winters Mix of snow and sleet. Then we woke to snow capped objects in the garden today.

Doesn't Ole Man Winter realize that we are ready for Easter bonnets, not snow caps?? He isn't much of a fashion monger.

I hope that this is the last snow report that I have to issue. However March being as fickle as it can be I have built snowmen in mid March. It will be intersting to see how spring plays out this year. No more freezes please. Ok, I have put in my order how about you?

I often wonder how plants survive in the watery corner of our garden. I planted a Rodgersia Pinnata in this corner last summer and of course we had the driest ever. Rodgersia is supposed to thrive in wet places. I watered until I was sick of doing so. It hung on as far as my eye could see. I will be anxious to see if it pops up this spring.

More Ice Pictures

Well my friends while I was sitting in my garden whining about a little ice on things my Sister who live 60miles south of where I do was really hit with ice about a week ago. We went to her place to visit family and friends today and I must say I was impressed with their ice. I have never seen the aftermath of such an ice storm. As you can see it was melting off the ground ok but look at those trees. This is ice people. Her garden is in 5a. Couldn't tell that by looking at these pictures.
I must add an edit here. As Carol pointed out my Sister is in 6A not 5...typo... How would you like your crocus to be encased by ice like this? I hope they come out for her after the thaw.

It was just unbelieveable the ice packed on the tree brances. Any branch that had a weakness did come down. Talk about a major pick up sticks project.

This is heather that was about to be gorgeous and look at it. Frozen.

Some Hawthorn or crab apples encased in ice.

I just know it will be a few days before the laundry will be hung out.