Snow Caps and Snow Visitors

Some people have lovely snowcapped mountains to look at. Here in the flat lands we get excited when our flower heads from summer are snowcapped.
On this one you can see the layer of ice that was first deposited on the sedum head.
We had so many visitors to the feeders today that it inspired my DB to get the camera out. This male Cardinal looks so pretty sitting on the ice covered branch munching a seed. In the background you can see a male House Finch. He can't quite compare with a cardinal even though he is sporting a nice rosey red.

While the female House finch isn't a particularly beautiful bird I think this photo is a good capture of the little lady. She looks quite demure sitting there in the sun waiting for her turn at the feeders.I thought this was an interesting angel of the juvenile White-crowned sparrow. It is looking around for just the right seed to descend upon. I wonder when his crown will turn white.

The most unusual feeder birds we had today were two Crows. They rarely come into our garden. It just shows how desperate they poor things were for some food.They were eating sunflower seeds. I put some yeast rolls out for them. I didn't know just what to put out for them. I could tell they were appreciative because they ate the rolls then took off to look for something more.

Slogging Ahead

I can't tell you how happy this pile of leaves made me feel when I got home from work tonight. I have been fighting allergies and working so I haven't been able to get out into the garden to do much lately. As you will see plants are going ahead with their agenda and my Dearly Beloved has tried to get some of the leaf mulch out of areas he is comfortable working in, like the knot garden. There were several of these piles of leaves around that after dinner I scooped up and put into the compost just before it started raining. UGH We just stopped squishing through the garden and we have several days of rain to look forward to so says the weather people. My best performer in the garden at this time is the freckled Hellebore. It is just blooming its little heart out.

The daffodils must have sensed that I was becoming a little impatient with them so some of them started to bloom. This cluster of daffodils are remarkable. I know I can hear you saying well, they look awfully common. I'm not going to argue that but these daffodils are remarkable in that these are some leftover bulbs that I just threw on top of the ground several years ago when I dug up a big clump to seperate and got tired of planting. I threw them here thinking I would get back to planting at some time and didn't ever do it. There was a big bush here that I am ashamed to say hid a lot of, ummm, things I didn't want to deal with at the moment. Do you have any spaces like that? Behind a garage or behind a big old bush in the corner of your garden?? I think what helped them most is that I would throw leaves and sticks here to keep "until later". Finally we took out the bush and the daffodils started blooming. They were so grateful for a little sun. Why I even pulled the weeds from around them. I might even get around to moving them since there are other bushes now planted in this area and they will be shaded too much again soon. That is something I can do "later". By this little group of daffodils you can see the varigated sedum is beginning to rear up. I keep having to dig out the all green reversions. I don't like the way a lot of my varigated plants seeem to revert. I wonder if it is the soil here or do all varigated plants eventually revert back to their mother plants?

Amongst the naked ladies the tall garden phlox is popping up. I can think of several places I would like to move a hunk of the phlox. It smells so good when blooming in late summer. I need some up by the patio. And in answer to your question Barbara about whether I worry about the lillies freezing outside this time of year, No I don't worry. You see they are under the front porch roof and with the brick on the front of the house holding heat it would have to get very cold to actually damage the lillies. They are quite happy sitting here with their feet covered with purple pansies and yellow violas. I will wait until it is steadily warm to put them out into the garden. Which should be in about 3 weeks. We have had frost several nights this past week but they don't seem to mind their location. So here is hoping they will be ok.

Leaping Day

Yipeeee, if every Leap Year had a day like today I would be leaping for joy and wanting it every year. The prompt for Illustration Friday was leap of course. I couldn't resist this one.

Today was a lovely 54 degrees with a slight breeze. I got so much accomplished in the garden today. The very best was that I found the first crocus of the year budded up. Just look at that sun and look at those little buds. This is more like it!! Another day of sunshine and I will have an actual bloom. Can't wait, can't wait.

Even the little sedum was all pumped up. I am not sure what kind of sedum this is. It was a tiny little piece that hitch hiked in with another plant. I like the red coloring so it gets to stay.