Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening....

This is what it looks like outside my window tonight!  At least it's Christmas break & big Guy doesn't have to be in until 2 o'clock tomorrow.  Ahhhh a sleep in morning!

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost

Sqawking Blue Jays - noisy theives!

I feed birds in my back yard, I have since we moved in as a kid way back in the early '70s.  Seed, suet, stale bread - whatever we can find - out it goes. We have always gotten great pleasure watching the birds, me, mom, dad and eventually big and little Guy - darling husband Guy now has a routine on how he fills up our 5 feeders.  He even went so far as to set up things in Maine to attrack birds too!

I have taken to putting millet and nyjer seed and peanuts on top of our rabbit hutch (our hutch is about ten feet long with a flat roof, the perfect platform feeder.)  I've  begun buying millet, cracked corn, nyger and peanuts from a company called  Prdseed (love that name!) and we store everything in galvanized garbage cans (to keep out the critters) in the shed.

Blue Jays LOVE peanuts and as soon as a batch goes out, that insane racket they make starts - one calls another and then that one another and so on.  It's funny, only one Jay at a time swoops in, grabs a peanut in it's beak and then flies into a tree to crack it open and munch it down - never two, I guess it's a Blue Jay culture thing.

When the weather is clear and crisp as it's been lately, and the Jays come, I am instanltly transported to Maine - you see every morning is clear and crisp and Jays constantly squawk there, so when I hear them around here, it's a deja 'vu thing - I guess that's why I do it - for "that feeling".

The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider

A visitor set up house my garden - a creepy, ugly spider. They make my skin crawl - but this one fascinated me for some reason.

The eensy weensy spider
 Crawled up the water spout
  Down came the rain
   And washed the spider out
    Out came the sun
     And dried up all the rain
      And the eensy weensy spider
       Crawled up the spout again.
Sorry I could not resist

The Last Rose of Summer

It is sad to see the last, rugged rose bush, produce one more beauty befor settling down for a long winter nap. This is the same palnt that gave me a glorious bloom a few years ago (my perfect rose post). Beauty still prevails.
 

See you next year!

Moonflowers & Morning Glories

Many gardeners consider Morning Glories too invasisve, nothing but a glorified weed.  Not me!  They are an absolute staple in my garden.  I now grow them from seed, taking advantage of the pods that form after the flowers are gone.  I simply crush the pod between my fingers & spread the seed on the ground.  I scatter them along fence posts, birdfeeder poles & even near climbing roses & just let them climb the canes.  They are easy, simple to grow & add a touch of delight in the garden.

Of course I can't just leave things alone, so a few years back I began

companion planting Moonflowers, along with the Morning Glories.

Just like the name implies, they flower in the evening - big, beautiful

white trumpets of beauty!  So just as the Morning Glories tire out

for the day, Moonflowers take their place.  I love them to death!

Rosehips in My Garden

I love to garden and one of my favorite things to grow are roses. At last count, I have about 20 bushes. Most give me beautiful blossoms at least once a summer, while others grace me with a second bloom later in the season. In all the years I have been growing roses however, I never had any bush produce rosehips, until now.

I never had intentions to actually grow rosehips, it just happened. When I got back from Maine, one of the Rugosa variety of roses, began forming them. Rosehips are simply the seed pods of the rose plant. They aren’t a kind of plant themselves, they are the “fruit” of the rose plant, looking somewhat like a tiny crab apple or cherry, and full of seeds.

Why am I excited? Because this never happened in my garden before and things like this make me excited and happy (I lead a sad life what can I say?)

Early Christians considered rose hips to be sacred, and crafted the first rosary beads from rose hips. An interesting sidebar that I only learned today. ( Rosehip rosary)

The Rainbow Connection

Today the morning sky was different! It was a bright orange - so beautiful! Then it started to rain and behold a rainbow - two in fact!

This got me to thinking about this song - so many versions, but I like Kenny Loggins best!

"Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun."~Gibran

What a better way to start your day than with a field of bright, golden sunflowers!

There is a farm on Sweetser Rd. that has a huge field of these beauties! Someday I will have such a field!

Watching Hummingbirds from the porch

For years, when I was visiting Maine, my mother-in-law Marie & I, would while away the afternoon sitting on the porch swing, sharing a cup of tea, quietly talking and watching the Hummingbirds.

Each Mother's Day, we would give her a plant for her garden. Every year it would be something different - Lilacs, Azaleas or Bleeding Hearts; whatever it was, she was always thrilled and she planted each one in a special spot.

One year I picked out a pink Phlox, which she planted directly in front of the porch. Perhaps it was beacause the ground was rich, or because it got the hot afternnon sun, it grew and grew. It grew so tall, that we were able to see it from the swing.

One visit, we were surprised by a visit from a tiny Hummingbird. We sat fasinated by it, and it returned everyday for days and kept us entertained for hours. Every visit thereafter, we sat and rocked and waited for the Hummingbird, and it never disappointed us.

This trip, while not able to sit on the swing, I still kept an eye out for a visitor and today was the day! Yup - a sweet little Hummingbird showed up to take a nectar break! I'm sure Marie is smiling from above!