Gardening – Rippled Effects

May 3, 2024

Do Be a Bleeding Heart

Life should be so simple and everyone so compassionate that “you’re such a bleeding heart” is not an insult but instead is a compliment and an everyday occurrence in our acquaintances. But, not so much, I regret.

However —- in the garden — oh to be a bleeding heart! Determined, hardy, early to rise (in the spring), arms reaching out with beauty. Yes, these plants grow with their hearts on their sleeves. When I drive in front of our house toward my garage, I am greeted with these beauties in mid-spring and they do not disappoint.

And, because I was getting set up to photograph a rug show for my guild, I did a dump of what was on my Olympus’ memory card. Not in the current season for sure, but here’s a summer photo from First Encounter beach (I think) and Nauset Light decked out for Christmas (in 2022)

There is more from an earlier camera dump. I cannot wait to see what I find in the “blast from the past” that my camera memory card provides.

March 29, 2022March 29, 2022

Yellow is one of my favorite colors

And this is the reason why. Yellow is such a happy color. The sun is shining more now that the days are longer — yellow. The warmth of the sunshine has made the daffodils spring forth from the ground — yellow. I’ve been doing a lot of quilting in my studio on the Cape — Totally Tulips, with yellow tops! Yes, yellow — a happy color.

Daffodils on the kitchen island at Heron Cove.

May 8, 2016

Here comes the sun

At least we hope so. After 7 days of clouds and rain (when your sky is dark and pours the rain — from “Come to Jesus), we saw sun this afternoon. And it’s supposed to be here for about 4 days. Hooray! and Hallelujah!

Did you know that old poem is almost in the form of a haiku?
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
I just want to play

…. or something like that. I do want to play — golf, walking, walking, gardening, sitting outside on the deck or by the pond. All the above, very difficult to do or enjoy, at least, in the rain.

Here’s hoping for a good week.

August 28, 2015

Sunflowers in August

Hubby planted some sunflowers at the end of our veggie garden. The seeds were a Valentine’s Day Gift!! So different and thoughtful. Well the sunflowers are at full height and the blooms are opening. Only the yellow ones are open now, the red ones (shorter) are yet to open. And the photo illustrates just how tall they are. I’m looking up at them to take this photo and am zoomed in a bit on my iPhone. They are about 4 feet taller than me. But OH SO PRETTY!

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

Markers of Spring

Yes, spring is here! Spring is (finally) here!
There are indications all over our yard.

The PJM azalea is in bloom. Beautiful purple right outside my kitchen window. I call this my “thermometer plant” as I can tell how cold it is in the winter by how curled up the leaves are. This past winter was really hard on it and leaves and blooms are scarce, but it is still alive

The marsh marigold plants are in full bloom in the pond — beautiful yellow.
The forsythia is solid gold up on the hill and by the driveway.
The daffodils are also in full bloom.

Oh yeah, and I’ve played 2 rounds of golf so far. Lots of bogies, which are good for me. Don’t know where this good golfing is coming from, but not worrying about it too much less it go away. 😉

Yes, at last, spring is finally here

(photos to be added later)

April 13, 2014

Spring! Spring! Spring!

Windows were open today and some spring cleaning has begun. Things are really waking up around here and today’s (or this week’s discoveries) include:

– at least 21 of my BFFs are alive and well and swimming around (Best Fish Friends)

– at least 5 frogs have survived the winter including the original pair who have created the family we have — Yes Phinneas and Phillis are back!

– several daffodils opened today

– lots of day-lilies are showing thru the ground

– and hubby has found the first deer tick on his body! oh boy, here we go again

And I did some “airing of the quilts”. These are destined for the Hospital Avenue Housatonic Habitat homeowners. A friend of mine has a friend who wants to do charity quilting for Habitat so she gave me 5 of her quilts. They have been in this friend’s house since completion and the house has a big hairy dog. So, I’m tumbling them in the dryer to remove dog hair and airing them out. They now look and smell great!

Four Habitat Quilts getting their spring airing out

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

The Great 2013 Windows Project – Day 0

Outdoor scaffolding arrives! In “contractor time” this is July. The windows that were to take 6 weeks to arrive were received by the lumberyard last Thursday. In “real people time” this is the end of October – 4 months later that was planned. Watching all the good weather go by with no work on the house . . . . . . . whatever. It’s finally about to begin, along with the serious praying for good weather and for not too much rotten wood in that east wall.

So – let the photo blogging begin.

In the mean time, work has been progressing on the landscaping. Our landscaping crew cleared the lower yard. This is the view from the deck, but the view from the chair where I spend most of my time knitting is similar. It is fantastic! I didn’t take a “before” picture, but this new view is not to be missed. Upon closer inspection, the area is a long way from being ready for grass planting, but that’s for next spring.

lower yard cleared and ready for spring work

The area I’m calling the island is where a huge decorative fir stood that Superstorm Sandy got rid of last year. Hubby did all the work cutting and taking the tree away – many trips to the dump with the pickup truck. The tipped root ball is still there and the area had been totally overcome with blueberry and other vines. Alonso, one of our landscapers, is in this photo somewhere — only part way through the clearing. In our version of “Where’s Waldo?”, this is Where’s Alonso?

July 21, 2012

First Fruits – and Completed Commitments

Today was a busy Saturday. Hubby was up early for a swim. I was in town to visit Ridgefield’s Summerfest on the way to a rehearsal. Lunch on the patio of a local restaurant. Trip up north to the pond supply store. Home to sit on the deck and read (Hubby) and knit (me) for a while. Then gardening for Hubby and baking for me. Then dinner cooked on the grill. A run to the grocery store for missing ingredients for cupcake frosting. A stop at the Carvel!!!! And home to frost cupcakes and watch le Tour de France. Whew! No wonder I’m tired and Hubby is sleeping in the chair with his computer in his lap.

Some random thoughts and photos before I close the lid on this laptop and head off to bed . . . . . . . . . . .

This picture is of some of the first fruits of our garden (gathered and eaten today), though we’ve had some zucchini prior to today.

In the completed commitments category are the two quilts made for the two new homeowners of the Linden Place homes built by Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. The home dedications were in June and I made a quilt for each of the two homeowner families. I haven’t heard that a CO has been issued for either home, but I’m sure they are anxious to move in. Here is a photo of me by our pond with the two quilts in my arms. They are about to be loaded into the car and driven to the dedication ceremony.

me and linden place quilts — Me and the Linden Place quilts

I really enjoyed the quilting and finishing of these quilts. They were done in beautiful weather and in my wonderful quilting “studio”. Doesn’t this look like a great place to work?

linden place quilt — View from the "drivers seat" as one of the quilts is being quilted

June 11, 2012

Big announcement from Mr Wren

Hubby and I spent some time sitting out by the pond yesterday and watching the male wren work. He was tireless and his routine was unvarying. He’d be gone from the nest area — then we’d see him come back and fly straight to the birdhouse and hop inside — then out he’d come and he’d hop onto the same tree branch and sing his delightful song. Off he’d go in search of more bugs for his mate who was apparently in the birdhouse sitting on the eggs. And he did this continuously the entire time I sat outside (which was over 2 hours) and was still working when the mosquitoes drove me inside.

Well — sometime, I would say this morning — something changed. At about 9 am — I heard the male sitting in the tree just singing that same song over and over and over and over and, well you get it, over again!!!!! I thought something was wrong and went downstairs and eventually outside to watch and see what was up. Little did I know that this was the “THEY’RE HATCHING!!!!!” declaration. I heard a second, different wren voice also and by the time I got out to watch, both the male and the female were flying to and from the birdhouse. Not as much singing now, though there’s still some, as there are mouths to feed.

In the photos below, the female wren can be seen peeking out of the box before she leaves it to go search for bugs. She seems very careful.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Just checking before she leaves the bird house

Yes, it’s a beautiful time of year. I managed to go outside and in the space of about 30 minutes, take 91 photos worth keeping. Here are the Stella de Oro day-lilies from beside the pond. Could have stayed out there all day!

December 5, 2011

Firewood

Work continues on the cleanup from the end-of-October show storm. The latest effort was borrowing the neighbor’s log splitter (and the neighbor, who claimed he was having fun!). This truckload is far less than half of what was split from the fallen oak and the giant trunk is still standing. By my estimates, the remaining trunk is over 15 feet tall and I cannot reach around it. By hubby’s estimates there’s over a ton of wood left in the standing trunk. Perhaps you cannot tell from the photo, but this was a huge, once beautiful red oak. I counted rings on one of the upper “branches” (that being a relative term since I couldn’t reach around it either) and found the branch over 60 years old. Neighbor thinks the tree was probably 100 years old. When the trunk is cut, I’ll count the rings there too. And my guess is the arborist will also be interested in dating the tree.

Got firewood? Yes, but for next year, and the year after, and . . . . . . . .