Out of the Garden V

We saw lots of wildlife while we were out birding sunday. This isn't exactly wild life but it was fun seeing this family of goats. The kid was most interested in us. It watched. It was very young. When Vinny, the crazy dog, started barking they all looked at us and then the kid ran to its mom on wobbly legs and started nursing.

On the wilder side of wildlife we saw a couple herds of deer. I tried to digiscope the deer but didn't get a very good picture. I couldn't see what I was doing since the sun was so bright. It was wonderful having the sun shining as it was so I am not complaining.

The Bald Eagle was patiently watching mostly in one direction. I figured it was looking for its mate to bring it something to eat. I could have stayed here of hours waiting to see what the other adult brought back to the nest but we went on.

I am glad we went on we found several First of the Year birds for us. Lesser Yellowlegs, American Pipit, Blue-winged teal were all FOY. All the birds are looking quite lovley in their breeding plummage.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - March 2008

I am posting my blooms for Garden BLoggers Bloom day a day early becasue it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and it rained most of today so I took my opportunity for photos late this afternoon. Carol at May Dreams Garden has started the Garden BLoggers Bloom Day on the 15th of each month. She wants us to post pictures of our blooming flowers on this date. It is fun to see what all is blooming where. So be sure to post your bloomers , flowers in the garden, then go to her blog and leave a comment so we can all come over to see your blooms. Carol's has several flowers laughing in her garden I think it fair to say that my garden is grinning all over with the exception of these crocus that are popped up in several places laughing their pretty little heads off.My only hellebore that seems to have survived the winter has a bloom that is just about open wide. A day of sunshine ought to open it up fully.
The rest of my garden is full of promise. The Peony Tree has several fat buds developing.

The Forsythia is full of buds.
I even have a spirea with buds building all along the outer limbs.

There are several clumps of daffodils forming buds.

Our Saucer Magnolia tree was trying its best to sport a bloom this month but it couldn't quite squeeze one out.

In previous posts you have seen my Pussy Willow and Maple Tree blooming so I won't post these again. I have posted my Pussy Willow a couple of times. I am so pleased with the way it is blooming this, our first year that the bush has had opportunity to bloom. What is blooming in your garden?

Willow Catkins

I had this nice little bouquet of Pussy Willow with a few forsythia stems in a vase and I was trying to get a picture of the Willow catkins with no luck. Then I read Mr McGregors Daughters blog and she had a good idea of using a colored paper as a background.

Well, I tried it and I did pretty good. I think these little catkins are the cats meow.

Book Meme

Sherry over at Q's Corner tagged me with the Book Meme that is going around. I really like this meme because, first of all I am nosy and I like to see what people are reading. Secondly I think I could get some good ideas about different books to read. While I sit here at the computer I have a whole set of bookcases I can turn my chair to and choose a book. This book jumped out at me becasue I just wrote an email to my Sister to ask if she would mind to have Easter Dinner this year as I usually do this but circumstances are not what they usually are. My dear Sister has graciously agreed to have the dinner so I am so happy about this. Anyway... here is the meme...



1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.



"Then in winter it would be alright again. But, no, I never longed to be a ballerina. I liked my classes but never liked the competition."



I especially like the last sentence. It describes me quite well. I do like to try different things but I don't like competition. I don't have much of a competitive bone in my body.



Now the last part of the meme I am not going to do. If you like the sounds of this meme I hope that you will do it and let me know. I would really like to see what you are reading.



Nosy Nellie... ooops, I mean Lisa.

Sunny Skies and a Walk at the Park

Let me just tell you it has been the most beautiful day today. The sun was out all day and we are going to do our first grilling of the year. WHoooo hooooo..... You can see that we have tulips poking up around the welcome sign. I have several of these types of stones around the garden. They were all given to me by friends and family.

My first helebore blossom is trying its best to open today I doubt if it makes it but maybe tomorrow if the sun is out again we will have our first bloom.

The Naked Ladies are sending up their greenery. I didn't remember that they came up at the same time as the daffodils but they are this year. It is odd how they greenery shows up and then disappears. I always think I will seperate them and plant some elsewhere in the garden but I never get around to doing it. I forget all about them when they die down.

The Maple tree is blooming up a storm. It will soon be throwing its pollen all over the place and I will be sneezing.

The yellow crocus are popped up everywhere now and are blooming their sweet little faces off. We even have greenery of the purple ones up today. It won't be long and we will have some purple blooms.

Although I have been ballyhooing about the bright sunshine and warming in our garden when we took Luna to the park we found that winter has not loosed his grip. Not much was popping up other than a few more humans at the park. This must be a sign of spring too as we are usually the only people here during winter.

The only good thing about Luna's heart conditon that I have found so far is that it appears that we will have a little slower pace going through the woods now. It seems that smells have overtaken her drive. I don't mind this because we will have more time to look around.

I will talk at ya later. I gotta go get the grill fired up. My Dearly Beloved has offered to make his Italian Burgers. Yummm My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Indianapolis Flower and Patio Show

I had the opportunity to go to the 50th annual Indianpolis Flower and Patio Show this weekend. I went Saturday morning with some friends. I don't go very often. The last time I went was five years ago so I was highly entertained with my browse through the show. There were lots of the typical water features, as above, and a few of the not so typical water features like the one below with the alligator dancing in the water fall. There was even a water feature for those that like that clean cut contemporary look.After sifting through some of the 450 vendors to see the garden displays my main impression of the show was that fire has become a necessary ingredient in the garden for many people. It appears that these fires are not to be used as in grilling or roasting hot dogs etc. They are to be viewed. Up close as this fire that is set into a table top or from across the patio as in the picture above where three seperate flames are poofing up out of the wall.

Mixing fire and water is a current theme as well. The closer they are together I guess the easier it is to see the juxtaposition. Or maybe it just makes you feel safer to have water so close to your fire.

I am sure there is a reason for this. It was just lost on me. I guess I just like the look and feel of a woodfire burning. I did admire the fancy fireplaces that were displayed.

There were displays of beautiful fresh flowers by some of the local florists. You could also purchase lots of fresh flower bouquets. All so very tempting.

If you want to see more of the shows garden exhibits you can look here. This site even shows some of them being built. I was a little disappointed that most didn't have a few more forced flowers in their displays. On the other hand I was reassured that I want heather in my garden next winter. There were severalcolors of heather blooming their little arms off.

All in all you could see all the hard work and craftsmanship that was on display. You could empty your pocketbook while filling your head with lots of garden ideas.

I am sure your last question is "Did you buy anything?". To answer, "yes". It isn't anything to do with what I have pictured here but that will be a post for the future.

Wreath Made of Pots

What with containers being the focus on Gardening Gone Wild and Pam at Digging writing about her beautiful sentimental wreath I thought I would post about the wreath I made last winter. It sort of hits on both topics. As you can see I had quite a collection of pots to use. This isn't an original idea. I saw something like it in a magazine last winter. I did put my own touches to it. I used what pots I had on hand. A wire wreath form and copper wire to wire the pots to form the wreath. The most time consuming part was painting all the pots. Whew, I didn't know if I was going to have the" stick to it"to do this or not. Yep, I made it through and I am glad I did. It is now hanging on the back of the house by the patio. It helps to liven up the space with the primary colors.

You can make one yourself while you are waiting for the snow to melt. You could even paint it colors to match your patio or where ever you plan to hang it. I also put some white lights on it to use it as a night light for while we are sitting on the patio. How is this for inspiration?? This ought to keep you busy this weekend while I am away. I am going to theIndianapolis Flower and Patio show. I'll let you know what I think of it when I return. Now if you want to see something different I have started a blog to post my Artsy Endeavors on. You can have a look at it here. Have a great weekend gang.