Spring Blossoms Late

But better late than never, right?

Here is a beautiful Columbine, which I'd transplanted last year and it took off--and I guarded jealously from the deer! The second pic shows the hosta that came in beautifully too.

This small garden was developed last year, after my husband and I cut out a lot of debris/dead or unwanted trees and growth. I worked hard on this planting. I have several different plants, which will each have their own blooming season. The Iris popped out, and they were showing as well, but didn't take a picture of them.

However, the lupine did well in it's new spot.

This is under that water tower I mentioned in a previous blog, where I worked (again very hard to eradicate unwanted plants, soil, etc.) in order to put in plants I had waiting for the rain to stop and soil to dry out at least some.

Below, this doesn't look like much, but this is from a rose bush. I harvest 90% of my plants either from parent plants, seeds or division. This one went in next to one I transplanted last year. When it finally blossoms, I'll get a picture of it.

I'm a collector of many things, rocks, plants, and even moss. Above, you can see that moss does really well under a tree, and it's even coated a rock next to the little bowl where the birds drink, or take a bath. Taking up moss is easy, since it basically grows across the ground. It's so thick in places, and I love the different kinds I find either on our property or in the woods in the park.

And speaking of rocks... I have been working on this section, which is blasted by the sun, and I've worked hard on, but once the heat came in, I had to quit. However, I have been working on it and will have more pictures to show at a later date.

As we live smack dab in the middle of the forest preserve/wetlands we not only get deer, but other unusual birds or animals. Both Dennis and I have seen the turkey, and some other people have seen it too. Well, here is a picture of it in our backyard. Later on, we learned that people (birdwatchers) who had spotted it--the birdwatchers who come out here--were looking for it, and some woman who spoke to my husband who was ready to leave on his mower asked him whether he'd seen the turkey. Of course he didn't tell her that we had, or we'd have the bird-watching paprazzi pouncing on this place.

This is a female. I've never seen any male, so she's a bit lonely. But she definitely is camera shy, since she came up from the prairie behind the barn, and made her way casually across our lawn. I knew exactly where she was heading.

She's heading into my secret woods (Lorelei's Enchanted Forest), which we've had to protect from the other forest preserve workers who seem to be demented about chopping out trees and vegetation. My husband has had to warn them on several occasions that this area is off limits, they are not to touch it. The deer and, as you can see, large fowl, seek it for their piece of mind. No one can come barging in, as the tangle of grapevine, sticky berry bushes and a few well-placed gates prevent anyone from just wandering in from the park.

More later on in the season as things progress. I'm waiting on my blanket flowers and Shasta daisies to open up. I hope to prevent deer from taking interest in them as well. We've got a new brood of fawns--my husband saw 3 crossing the road from the field into our woods, which is their favorite place to rest and hide from people, only just this morning.

Snot isn't Sexy

Hey, guys. I've been sick. Actually last week I was down with the mother-of-all colds. My husband got it and gave it to me. His work mates had it, and I've traced it back to one of their wives who goes to a gym regularly (and knew she'd gotten it from the sick people coughing all over the equipment). The worst breeding grounds for germs are a gym and a day care. After that it's other schools, and should you think you'd like to enjoy a buffet, may I remind you that EVERYONE just touched those spoons, etc.

This cold goes like this. You get a sore throat, and it might last 1-2 days. You have an accompanying cough which has a signiture of a long, drawn out first cough and then just coughing. You may split a gut coughing. Fortunate for me, I was doing core and ab tightening training, so I had no adverse reactions.

The second week, you are not out of the woods, yet. You are still coughing. I'm at the end of my second week, and have the lovely snot thing going on. You know, where you think you've got it all and it's like somewhere a mile deep. (sorry if that grosses some people out).

My husband had it start about 3 weeks ago, and still has a cough, as do the other guys and the man's wife had it for a month, went to a doctor and still had the cough. There's nothing you can do. It is the COLD FROM HELL.

And I've got this voice that sounds like I've been a chain smoker for life. I said to my driving pal, "Thanks, you mean I sound like a bar fly?" har har har.

And, in the mean time, spring is here and I've only begun working on the transplanting and so forth. We saw some asparagus plants in containers about 3 weeks ago, and decided to get them. Little did we know both the sickness and the stupid rain (and frigging cold!), would keep us from doing any digging out there. This week we began on the bed, which I want raised and get the soil just right. These new plants, I've read, don't tolerate any sort of weeds, so we've gotta get this just right if we want asparagus in the spring, after next year. I had to transplant these into larger pots, meanwhile. But they are putting up little thin sprouts all the time, so they don't mind being on the porch for now.

When time, I'll post a little bit more and maybe with some pictures of what I'm up to.

All for now.