I
make sure I stick my phone in my pocket when I leave the house so I
can be in constant contact with a world I usually choose to shun.
I'd post a picture except I haven't figured out how to take a picture
of me putting my phone in my pocket with my phone.
These
are called walking onions because the 'flower' is not really a flower
at all but a cluster of small onion bulbs that start to sprout until
the stalk falls over and they plant themselves in the ground. Every spring I patrol the yard pulling them off before they can plant themselves in an attempt to prevent them from spreading.
The
slinky? It works! I got a slinky junior which seemed the right size
for my totem feeder. I have not seen a single squirrel on it since I
siliconed the slinky to the bottom of the bottle and the seed lasts
much longer. I haven't seen a squirrel jump on the slinky yet but I
did see one little girl clinging to the rebar just beneath the bottom
of the slinky and she reached up and tested it and then jumped down
browsing on the ground cause it's not as if there isn't a ton
of seed on the ground from the bluejays tossing it all out looking
for the peanuts. Possibly it had already shot her to the ground a
few times. She sits on a low branch of the small tree outside my
window and gazes at the bird feeder where she used to sit and chow
down.
The
still unmown meadow
(ah, now mown around the fleabane and evening primrose and looks much tidier) that is the Big Backyard...
the fleabane is ascendant right
now and smells sweetly if you bend down to sniff though the oxalis
and anemone are still putting on some blooms and the evening primrose
is about to go full on. I don't know how well the wildflower
mini-meadow is going to do being a bit behind. The bluebonnets in
the front are in full bloom, early as is everything. Some things
bloomed out of season but not well. Like the red buds. They sort of
came and went when in past years they were torches. And the mock
dogwood is blooming but not fully. And my daffodils came up but I
didn't get a single bloom.
I
looked over at Frank of the Bountiful Garden's magnolia tree
yesterday (yes, I know it is no longer Frank's) and it is blooming...in March.
Yay, Ellen! I love these pictures.
ReplyDeleteOne of my heartbreaks this past few days is that my Ashe Magnolia was just about to open its beautiful huge floppy blooms when we got the freeze. I know the tree will live but I have no idea if the blooms will be miraculously resurrected. My blooming buckeye was seemingly completely unperturbed. 62 years old and still learning new stuff every day. The problem is how little of it I will remember come next spring.
I'm still trying to figure out what is a weed at the city house. But, I figured out a few more so progress. Your weather is warmer there but our spring is early too. Very dry though. I'm trying to get the sprinkler system to work and following the booklet, but so far, nothin'.
ReplyDeleteThat slinky is great! Now I have to figure out a way to keep the crows from diving in an getting everything before the birds can get in there....
ReplyDeleteLove your yard, I can imagine how wonderful it smells.
that white magnolia is usually an early bloomer
ReplyDeleteI think if I could watch that slinky in live action I would laugh and laugh and laugh.
ReplyDeleteI saw that slinky trick somewhere on the Web and thought it a fantastic trick to keep away squirrels.
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird that your daffodils didn't bloom. Too hot too suddenly, maybe? That slinky is a stroke of genius, though we don't have too much trouble with squirrels on the bird feeder -- it's the ones digging that get me down.
ReplyDeleteWe have something that's daffodil-like (leaves), but no flowers yet. We'll see if anything materializes. We're just going to see what grows this year & then plant some things next year. Mike did bring some "ancestral" phlox over from his dad's house - I hope it takes hold. I love phlox.
ReplyDelete