Finally blogger decided to let me publish stuff… so since it took the climbing fox from my graft collection, lets see if it will take these shots.
Just a few shots from some other corners of the yard… Mountain laurel is not supposed to grow here. But I used to bring it rocks down from my place in PA to make it feel more at home. We don’t have rocks here, either.
Hope you enjoyed the visit!
I like it not only for its unusual beauty, but because it is so fragrant... sort of like a cross between the honey suckle and a jasmine, but not as heavy as wisteria. My favorite Irises are blooming,
loads of them left to bloom,
and the azaleas with the bigger flowers, the ones that will bloom again in the fall. 
I might mention, these colors are NOT inhanced. Honest! I mean, what's the point? As you can see, the camellias are still in bloom. Maybe you can get a sense of the size of things in this shot.
Grandpop's peonies are open.
The red ones will open next week. As you can see, the Boys are enjoying the garden, too. Spook has taken to napping next to the zucchini and eggplants.
Punkin is enjoying the empty trays! 
It was pretty well demolished by neglect – a priorities thing- and then it was weed-whacked to the ground, all but the dogwood and the yellow iris. The other little green things are lilies that have never had a chance to bloom and a tiny calla lily I planted out here years ago and was sure I had lost it. 
I also found a volunteer columbine coming up. There were phlox here… I found them trying to come thru the leaves and winter accumulation of debris and last year’s collection of weeds and dead grass. I decided to not be lazy and let someone else get in here with their weed whacker this year. I was determined to rescue it first. It took 4 bags of mulch and really could have used more. I can’t wait to see what blooms besides the yellow iris (which tends to be magnificent.)
Speaking of magnificent - the azaleas are just that.
Most of them are huge now, a few of them over my head. I know I am going to have to trim some of them back, but cutting back a bush is painful to me. Again, I have people stop by when I am out in the garden and tell me how much they enjoy riding by my place. “It brightens my ride to work.” That makes me feel good because it is a lot of work keeping the weeds from taking over everything.
Amazingly I still have a few camellias in bloom. I keep forgetting the Bleeding Hearts are in bloom as are the Snap Dragons that winter over here. AND, there are buds on the roses. Imagine! And then there are the lilacs. They have survived to bloom another year. Oh, how I love their fragrance!
In the veggie department, the garden is 90% planted. I am waiting to plant the Italian flat beans and I will put in a few late tomatoes, not in the garden, but in strange little spots among the shrubs where they have proven they will flourish late in the season. Meanwhile, my peas are up to the second string and climbing. I have little white strawberries and lots of flowers. The first 2 blueberry bushes have tiny green berries. The cucumbers are next to their fence, (Thanks Pat!), the peppers are sharing the middle of the asparagus bed, raspberries are looking great, zucchini is in the ground along with skinny eggplant – perfect for grilling. The yellow squash is looking good, but no sign of the carrots yet. I am trying them in a bag like the potatoes. The potatoes went in their bags yesterday. The onions are a foot tall, and the lettuce has just popped its first tiny sets of leaves thru the ground. Several of the tomatoes are up about a foot. I have extended my herb garden this year with separate window boxes for each herb. I even bought a bunch of dill for the Black Swallowtail caterpillar. They just LOVE dill, and we seldom use it. Apparently the potato bags were a hit once people found them at Wal-Mart. They have been sold out for weeks. I have one left. I am going to try a sweet potato in that one. Meanwhile, my friend Philip in Canada has just sent me pictures of the current snow at his place. My Uncle and brother (Ohio and northern PA) are under a winter storm warning… and we are working on our 2nd inch of desperately needed rain. Cutting the grass(weeds) lately has mostly been an exercise in relocating dust. Last time I thought I probably should have worn a mask. Watering takes over an hour. I understand some places were about to invoke watering restrictions. Maybe with it being such a rainy day I can get caught up on my blog reading. I know, I should try a little house cleaning… right, I hear you. All that dust from outside has settled on everything inside! Sigh. I hope the spring has been good to you. I am so sorry for all those folks who have lost so much with all those storms.
Looks like I am growing a Punkin in this potato bag!
finally got to the point it was just not doing what it was supposed to do, and one morning it took an hour and a half to open and respond to one email... Sooooo, I had no choice. TA DA! The new one!
Yep, that is a big screen - 23 inches. It is also a touch screen - but I don't know if I will ever get used to that. I tried to remove an ant from the screen and the word yahoo no longer even fit on the screen! It took FOREVER to get the screen back to normal size.
And one more shot - a bad one to be sure, but it is the only one I have been able to get - this little Orchard Oriole does not hold still for long.... (this shot did not make it from one computer to the other. Rats!
OK, now lets see if this will publish!
Answer - it did, BUT, I had to go in on the new computer and respace everything. HUGE empty spaces between pictures. sigh. Nuts, weird spacing keeps coming back! Sorry.
Each season, as I walk around my yard, I look at all the beauty out there... most of my plants came from somebody - well, half of them, anyway. As I look at this or that camellia, clump of daffodils, even some of my trees, I think about the people that gave them to me - most of those folks are gone now - but as the beauty of their loving gift lives on - they live on. I treasure each bloom, and my heart talks to the one who gave it to me. I send them a little prayer of thanks, be they here or moved on, and pray for their peace and comfort, wherever they are, and that they may have beauty in their current or new life. 
Just yesterday, an old pick-up pulled in the yard, with a middle aged guy and an elderly woman. I did not know them. The gentleman apologized for bothering me… but explained how his mother always made him slow down when they drove past my place. She sat there and just grinned the biggest grin. “Mama’s eye sight ain’t what it used t’ be,” he said, “But she can still see the bright colors of yer ‘zalyers and camalyers, and, what’s them things?” he said pointing to the peonies just opening. “Funny, ain’t it how the camelyers bloom in the winter time? Mama loves to see the red ones in the snow. Made me drive out in that snow last winter just to see your bushes.” The old lady was nodding her head up and down.
“Well, I prob’ly shun’da stopped an’ bothered ye, but mama seen ya out in the yard and wanted to say Thank ye fer bringing a bit of beauty to her world.” (Ye is not part of a religious group speak – it is just part of the old Eastern Shore dialect spoken by many of the old farmers and watermen.)
“Thank ya!” the old woman said as he backed the truck back out onto the road. She waved a little wave with gnarled, tanned fingers, aged by years of hard work. I could just see those hands plucking chickens, pickin’ crabs, canning tomatoes and preserves. She would have recipes in her head for the best pickled watermelon rind, and know exactly how long to cook soft-shelled crabs. I wondered how many diapers those hands had changed and washed and hung on the line to dry. How many little shoes had she tied? How hard had her life been? But how much joy had been there also? How many children did she have? Had she had to bury any of them? And how lucky she was to have a son to take her out on a nasty winter’s day to see my red camellias in the snow, or pull in my yard to thank me for bringing a bit of beauty to the world. That is love. And that is why I work so hard out there.
But sometimes beauty comes in different packages… not always flowers. Living here in a rural area, I get to see a lot of critters people in cities just never get to see. (Although we DID have a MOOSE walk up the street in front of our house in Portland, Maine!) Some critters are all too obvious, the deer running across the road or nibbling on the shrubbery, the coons getting into the left over cat food… but, some of them are not obvious at all, just a chance sighting every now and then. Possum sightings are few, as are seeing foxes, both gray and red, but they are there. Looking up as a shadow passes over, one might see the local bald eagle or a red-tailed hawk. Looking down, there is a world of little critters, blue tailed skinks being the most obvious, and on to the tiny critters with 6 legs.
As I type this, there is an orchard oriole in the ground level birdbath. But he seems to notice any movement at the window, so the pictures come up empty. They are rare around here. Yet cardinals are common as are the bright, flashy little goldfinches that hangout in my yard. Might it be all the thistle feeders I have? Let it be said, I do not take them for granted. I do ply them with feeders filled of their favorite snacks! Of my 4 pairs of cardinals that have spent the winter here, I have found the nesting places of 3 of the couples and their babies. One family is in the huge Acuba outside the bathroom window, the other 2 families are in camellias. I am not sure about couple #4.
Once in a while, looking straight ahead holds some amazing surprises. I almost leaned my shovel against this tree trunk – caught it just in time – and came inside to grab the camera. This happy couple were fortunately still there resting on the tree trunk. Even driving by on the tractor and loading tons of mulch a couple feet away did not disturb them. But then, they are Luna moths, and they only fly around at night. 
If you know me at all, you know how difficult it is to walk and do things, but staying as active as possible helps my serenity. Working out in the yard and having my little veggie garden “does something” for me. There is a sense of peace playing in the dirt, and a sense of comfort from being surrounded by so much beauty and the gifts from those who love and have loved me. And there is always the 4 legged company I have whenever out in the yard, the little yellow cat that rolls over to get his tummy rubbed.
Life is good.
If you ever plant digitalis (foxglove,) you have digitalis for life, it seems. It seems to reseed itself in the strangest places. I am always amazed when I see the little leaves come up somewhere in the yard or garden. 
Mine get quite tall, most as high as 4 feet, some taller. 
Again, it is a plant that people stop and ask me about. I thought it was a rather common flower, but maybe it is because mine are so tall.
Even one of the local garden center people stopped one day and asked me to save him some seed. The colors range from almost pure white to a nice deep pink.
Have you priced them at garden centers? These came from Sam’s Club. I took a chance and several of them made it. I have some new ones from this year that are slowly coming along. Maybe they will bloom next year. I also bought some pink iris last year.
I carefully labeled them – this one is labeled pink iris! Surprise! Pink, not! But it is interesting!
What a surprise! One can’t always believe what is on the package label! I was really pleased that the new rhododendron bloomed this year. 
It looks good with the pink iris and the digitalis. My old fashioned roses are awesome this year -
and SO fragrant! See the little flying squirrel house? We have babies! But it is impossible to get pictures. I hope you have enjoyed my garden. If you are in the neighborhood, give me a call, come sit in the Adirondacks and have a glass of tea!
