SMALL TREASURES

NOT ALL TREASURES ARE GOLD! (Gold finches or otherwise... some treasures are RED, some are BLUE)

YES, I AM USING ALL CAPS, BUT I AM SO EXCITED I AM SHOUTING! I NOW HAVE 2 MALE INDIGO BUNTINGS... they are scrapping out by the feeders. I had to be patient to get them in the same shot... I know it is not so good, but with the sun on the window and some left over rain drops... yeah, excuses, excuses...

But if you look at the feeder on the left and then the feeder on the right, you will see both boys.

This shot had Mr and Mrs Indigo, papa Cardinal, and a sparrow - but as I pushed the button, Mr blue took off. They are such spooky things! So, imagine the blue boys from the previous pic sitting in this one........... Hey! That's the best I can do this morning.

Sitting just a bit too far away from this camera are 2 more cardinals - papa is feeding mama... that is so sweet!

THE APRIL GARDEN REVISITED

Onions and peas

THE APRIL GARDEN REVISITED. By popular demand, well, OK, 3 people, I have been asked to show the garden as it is first planted and then later – probably after the deer have eaten everything so it won’t look much different. Whoops, a negative thought… sorry.

So, here are a few pics as April comes to a close. Baby tomato plants... Flowers on the blueberry bushes.........

The asparagus is in the ground but not completely buried just yet. My nephew calls it spare-grass. Sometimes just grass. "We eatin' grass for supper?" Absolutely!
Loook carefully and you will see Punkin under the dogwood......
I have included a few of the azaleas and also a couple of visitors to the bird feeders. This is out front at the beginning of the driveway. On the otherside of the driveway is my favorite azalea and a few feet away is my favorite camellia - Pink Perfection is still in bloom......... SO BEAUTIFUL!
The blue fellow is an Indigo Bunting. He is here a lot these days. This is a Red Bellied Woodpecker. And one of the Blue Jays....








Gee, won't I have nice pictures when I get my windows washed????? SIGH!

THE APRIL GARDEN

Subtitle - Nothing to see!
The garden is mostly in - 12 tomato plants (4 Big Boys, 4 Rutgers, 4 Red Cherry) all about 4 inches high - 1 row of sweet onions, up about 3 inches, 2 rows of peas, one row is up about 3-4 inches - one row of white corn, 2 rows of string beans and space left for a later row of corn.
This is my first completed veggie garden. I know, it does not sound like much, but I am tickled pink! Or reddish brownish er tan, er whatever color I am. My arms are certainly a different color than the rest of me... Vitamin D, natural! Anyway, a photo would look stupid - it would look like a few weeds and a bunch of stakes and mud. I will wait until some more comes up!
The blueberry plants are alive, leafing, and 2 of them actually have little flowers! I am so impressed! Remember seeing them buried in the snow.
There are flowers on the strawberries, and the raspberry plants are looking good. Now all I have left to do it plow up enuf space for 8 asparagus plants. I gotta watch that Mantis video again, get some gas in it and believe that I can DO IT!
I am so glad I have never accepted the words -"You can't do that!" I don't accept my body telling me I can't, either. Consequently, I have a garden. So there! OK, God, it is your turn!

HEY! WHERE'S BREAKFAST?

HEY! WHERE'S BREAKFAST?*

*Or dinner, lunch? My snack? Well, you get the idea.
The truth is, the little pig cleaned it all up yesterday... ain't nary a nibble left! And I have been busy getting a paper done, sigh, so I have not been out to feed the pigs, uh, birds - or, as it appears, the athletic fuzzy four-legged!

C'mon, where'd ya hide it? I know it is here somewhere!
YOOOOOOUU HOOOOOOOOUUU! Hey! Get out here! NOW! I don't eat thistle seed - believe me I 've tried it. I'm gonna die of starvation!

The MID-APRIL GARDEN

The Mid-April Garden

The pansies and violets seem to be happy.

Happy Income Tax Day, groan. What me worry? Taxes? What taxes?

Punkin's favorite place out in the yard seems to be FuzzButt's grave. Strange, isn't it?

The yard is starting to get pretty... it should look fantastic in another week or two. The azaleas are just getting started. The trees are various colors - like a mini autumn of sorts. The redbud is starting, see how it comes out from the branches? the daffodils from a couple of weeks ago are gone but the later ones are so beautiful. I was afraid these would get damaged in the snow...

The camellias are falling tho there are still quite a few on the bush. These are Red Emperor after a strong windy night.
The onions are up about 2 inches and so are the peas, but I have kept the peas in the greenhouse... I had to put the geraniums back in there also.

Tight this minute, the yard is again a big puddle... we have just had an inch and a half of rain in the last 2 hours and it is not over. The wind is getting serious, too. They said we could get as much as 60 mph winds and 3 inches of rain. sigh. Or make that Quack.

A WARNING AND A COMPLAINT

WHAT? ANOTHER COMPLAINT?
Yeah, I guess so. A blog that I have checked on a weekly basis has been deleted - the blogger decided it was too much to keep up with, so she deleted it. It was a nice decent blog, nice pictures, a good thing. BUT, When I went to it, I found links to porn and ads for Via g ra among other drugs... yeah, like the drugs would be real?????????? Anyway, this is to let you know if you delete your blogger account, some idiot will pick it up and turn it into whatever he wants... Guess this is something else google needs to work out. Most of us got spammed in our comments dept and had to add the verification section... ANyway, I know a lot of you check this blog and have blogs of your own so I thought you would like to know. Guess when I decide to dump this blog, I will dump everything but one last posting and just let it sit there.

THE REST OF THE SNOW

THE REST OF THE SNOW - can you read it? 6 inches. WBOC said we might get a dusting.

A new version of the covered wagon.

A wind chime is under that triangle of snow. Below is Debutante before I shook the snow off. St Francis and the pansy garden! Equal time for the Buddha.......
The netting over the blueberry bushes, normally almost invisible!
Belly deep and complaining, Punkin forgot and did hid usual roll over and nearly buried himself. he did not repeat that performance the rest of the day!

Young pine trees were bent all the way over to the ground.

9 AM

It is now 9 AM, still snowing... gotta go fill a couple of feeders.

See the Red Bellied Woodpecker on the Redbud? (That's the tree for those of you who have never seen a Redbud.) Papa cardinal is on the ground.

See the papa cardinal on the sunflower feeder that is pratically buried in snow? See the goldfinch in flight?

6:30 AM AND IT IS SNOWING!!!!!

6:30 AM AND IT IS SNOWING!!!!!

First I heard the rain in the gutters around 5:30. I looked outside and it seemed like there might be a bit of snow mixed in. I debated getting up and getting to work... I have an unfinished paper... and what if it freezes and the power goes out?... but, I rolled over for another quick little nap. Rascal, however had other plans, there were toes that needed pouncing, knees that needed to be attacked... those of you who live with young cats know the routine. And those of you who are my age or there-abouts know the rest of the story. I had to get up anyway. I pulled open the bathroom curtains and was so shocked I almost forgot what I was in there for! It was still dark, well, sort of, the sun sure was not up yet, but I found a white world. I hurried and pulled on some warm clothes, grabbed the camera and went out into a snow covered world. I don't think anyone will be sitting in these chairs today!

And to think the picture below was less than 24 hours ago!

St Francis and some pansies yesterday. The same place this morning at 7 AM.

Red Emperor in the snow.

More snow............... It is now 8 AM and we now have 2 inches and it shows no sign of slowing down!

THE TREE

THE TREE IS GONE

Out in front of my house, maybe 30 feet from the corner of the car port, has been a big gum tree. Pieces of this gum tree have landed in my driveway in almost every major storm we have had in the last 10 years. The tree needed to come down before serious damage was done to the house or a vehicle. These pictures were taken right after Ernesto. The power company refused to take it down because they have found it is more expensive to do preventive cutting than it is to inconvenience hundreds of thousands of people after a storm while they repair the downed lines. Don't you just love these EXECUTIVE decisions? As long as THEY make money, who cares who dies or suffers? Whoops, I try to keep this blog non-political, but it just slipped. However, it is the same basic mind set, isn't it?

So, after the first guy found out his cherry-picker wasn't tall enough, he found one that was. This picker goes all the way up to 85 feet.

Then we had to see if they would take down a tree that has power lines running right next to it on 2 sides. The truck barely fit in my driveway!

Now I have to decide what to plant in this spot after they grind the stump out.