Wednesday, April 21, 2021

chilly nights and spring flowers


*I'm keeping this up for a while to make sure everyone who checks in now and then sees it. I've gone ahead and removed the 'follow by email' function since it's going to be dysfunctional starting in July. I assume those who already get email notices will continue to get them up until then. I've reinstalled the blogger 'follow me' function. I initially took it down because my follower count stayed stagnant for years. Once again, if you do follow by email you will have to be more pro-active to see my posts either through bookmarking or getting a blogger account (no blog required) and follow that way but you will still have to go to it instead of it coming to you. One person suggested that readers use Feedly. I don't know anything about it but you might check it out. And I'm supposed to be able to download the subscriber list. If that happens I can create a group and email the notification of a new post myself so I'll look into that.

Before I get on with the post, can anyone tell me why, when I click on an image in my blog and the window opens with all the pictures as icons across the bottom, my image shows up small instead of the full size image it is. When I click on images in other blogs to 'embiggin', they open full size. There must be a setting somewhere but I can't find it.

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Our brother John left for home early Friday morning. The weekend continued to be overcast and chilly with the sun finally starting to come out Monday. Yesterday it was completely clear and warm. I did some weeding around the day lilies Monday and finally got the 7 little banana trees planted after I dug them up to reclaim the border of the flower bed which I still have not reconstructed. Over the weekend I planted another bunch of zinnia sprouts but I don't have high hopes for their survival. I don't know why they never took off.

Another survivor, the purple orchid tree finally put out new growth from the roots. I'm sure that's the last of the survivors. I'm giving the hibiscus, bougainvillea, star of india, and the desert rose trumpet flower bush 10 more days but they are dead. And another surprise fatality, the rain tree at the back of the property died. I'm actually not sad about that as it was not a pretty shaped tree in that it is crowded by an oak and wild grape vines are constantly invading it and every damn seed pod it dropped produced trees. I'm tired of pulling up rain trees everywhere. And while the big tallow tree in the little backyard came out fully, the two small ones along the drive are mostly dead from about halfway up. My neighbor's small tallows have done the same.

Spring keeps getting interrupted here what with the arctic freeze and the near week of overcast and chilly weather last week and the cool nights this week so far. The larkspur and the love-in-a-mist are just now starting to bloom, way behind schedule but other things have come and gone. I worked out in the yard all day yesterday, finally decided to put the porterweed in the ground so I did. Then I fertilized the azaleas and roses, weeded the front flower bed. My friend Debbie came by with a small volunteer Texas mountain laurel tree from her big one and I got it potted so I can baby it til it gets over the shock of being dug up. Meanwhile I'll figure out where to plant it. Then I went around looking for the poison ivy and pecan trees I had spotted but damn if I could find them again.

More pictures of blooming things...

some things really liked that frigid week like the pink roses all over town, I've never seen them bloom this profusely.

And the pink climbing rose as well.

The canopy overhead was full of roses.

The mock dogwood also seemed to like it.

The poppies continue to be brilliant.

And the indigofera is outdoing itself this year.

It's third spring, the columbine finally decided to bloom.

The maroon japanese iris are also plentiful but that may be because they have multiplied.

The yellow angel trumpet is unbelievable. There are 17 open flowers in this picture. I've had two in the ground (both now dead) but neither ever got this big or bloomed this much as this one in the pot. The minute I stepped out yesterday evening the scent was so strong I could smell them on the other side of the house.

Ten flowers in this picture.

Most of this is still blooming but the pink roses and mock dogwood have gone by.



19 comments:

  1. Holy cow, your yard is a wonderland! That climbing rose is magnificent- everything is but OH that rose!! Our heartier plants are doing well- still alive that is.

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  2. I think that if you use the slideshow feature, it over rides the size of the photo. That was what I ultimately decided was happening, and which is why I quit using it. Sometimes I want to leave a photo very large so that people can enlarge and see a detail. That's my theory, which may or may not be true.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, I don't think they called it a slide show, it's called lightbox. I still don't like it.

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    2. I turned off lightbox and it made no difference. most my images are 10" in the longest dimension, sometimes 12, sometimes 8. they don't even show up as big as the 'extra large' in the post itself.

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    3. Well, that was all the intelligence I had. If someone tells you how to fix it, would you please post. This could be news we could use in the future.

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  3. I thought columbine reseeded each year.
    Everything in that yard is wonderful; blooms galore. Well, not Aunt Laura's iris.

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    Replies
    1. columbines, some do I think. not Hinkleys though I hope it reseeds and gives me more.

      and sadly, no, not yet.

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  4. Your flowers are so beautiful. I so love seeing spring there.

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  5. Oh wow... eye candy for sure! Just love all the colorful flowers in your photos! My new ground cover plants are blooming! Unbelievable--they've only been in the ground for barely a week and they're blooming. Must be happy! ;) Hugs and thanks for sharing!

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  6. Your flowers and plants are beautiful. I especially like that climbing rose!

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  7. Beautiful blossoms! The trumpet flowers ARE especially impressive. I have no idea what to think about your photo enlarging problem. When I "embiggen" your pictures I get about a 3x5 image. Are they larger than that when you upload them? Maybe if you upload full-size pics Blogger resizes them by default...? I usually resize my pics to make them smaller before I post them, but they're still bigger than that, if that makes sense.

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    Replies
    1. my images are usually 10" in the longest dimension, sometimes 12, sometimes 8. so there's no reason they shouldn't be that big when clicked on and yet they aren't. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I drag them from the finder into the post body instead of the add image function.

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  8. Your yard is hard-work-and-love created garden of Eden! Good for you, Ellen! Looks like the old adage- what does not kill us makes us stronger- has turned out to be quite true in your yard.

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  9. Gorgeousness gorgeousness! I have no answers to your picture size problem - maybe it is because you drag them, but that's annoying. I don't resize my photos (although admittedly I get most of them from FB, so they're resized from that). But they still show up the same as the ones I get directly from my phone. Who knows?

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  10. It is a joy for me to see all your flowers, so many of which don't grow where I live but did grow where I grew up in Northern California. They bring good memories to the present and enrich the present. Because I put your blog on my Blogger Reading List, your posts and those of other blog friends come to my blog's Reading List automatically and for that I am grateful!

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  11. Wow! Impressive blooming going on at your home, Ellen! I bet it smells so wonderful when you are outside. Thanks for sharing!

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  12. Your yard is just gorgeous. I noticed just today that some of the landscape roses around here (not knockouts, but something) are going gangbusters. The Southern Magnolias are suddenly thick with buds, too. We're rolling along.

    I can't help with your photos since I'm on WordPress and know zip about blogger, but I can tell you I've heard complaints from other blogger users recently, so you're not alone. Some comfort, huh?

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    Replies
    1. this time of year it is in its element. I have things that bloom most all year in stages but spring is the time it is most in bloom.

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  13. The iris are spectacular. The others are just gorgeous.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.