Beaded Forest

The latest from the garden

The garden continues to grow, despite my general neglect this year...

I don't remember planting these irises or seeing them growing there before, so they were a surprise!

Wild roses and wild geraniums                                      

 

Other garden goodies

Some Nicotania I'll be planting soon

Can't think of the name of this one at the moment, but so funny, the camera insisted the flower was a much bluer shade!  I had to do some post-production color adjusting to get the touch of purple back.  The leaves are pretty accurate at this point too, a neat contrast to the flower.  I love these guys, and the patch seems more vigorous every year.

I've been doing some sewing,and just finished this complicated layered skirt (Vogue 7880), but it needs something more.  I think I know what the "more" is, and now have to figure out how to make it happen.  More details soon to come!

More signs of Spring!

Can you ever have enough pictures of cute little springtime creatures?  Here are some more photos one of my neighbors got of our local friends:






























































Thank you Daniel!

Spring neighbors!

Some of our wonderful springtime neighbors:


















































I have to give my neighbor Gary credit for these pictures...the turkey family has been wandering around for a week or so, but I haven't been able to get a good shot.  Thanks, Gary!

Post-rain garden

Now that several days of spring rain are over (and a bit of chaos in my life has settled down!), here are a few images of the garden (yes, the lilac picture is the right way, even though it looks like it's sideways!)

More evidence of spring!

Every week there's new spring beauty popping up!  The forsythia has been blooming for a couple of weeks now, and it sure brings on a bright, happy yellow to wake everything from its winter slumber.  I love these little frittilaria I planted a few years ago...they come back every spring:

My neighbor Kathy gave me a few of these from her garden a few years ago, and I love their Dr. Seuss-ness, and that little flower, hiding underneath the huge leaves:

This week's daffodils:

You can't have spring without a Bleeding Heart or two!

The dogwood tree:

And finally, the little jack-in-the-pulpits which pop up all over the woods.

I've been doing a bunch of sewing, but haven't gotten around to pulling out the dressform for picture-taking.  I'll do it soon, I promise!

Signs of Spring!

A few of the local flora popping out, now that warmer weather has arrived:

A wild violet;

Can't remember the name of these guys, but they appear all over the place!

One of the gazillions of different daffodil varieties I've either planted or inherited;

Lovely nodding hellebores;

These guys are one of my favorites. They appear all through the woods this time of year, with speckled leaves and little nodding flowers. So sweet and bright among the old dry leaves!

What Harry's doing today...

...and what I get to do is stay home from work!  A foot of snow is expected today, and our driveway hasn't been plowed, so I'm not going anywhere.  Whoo-hoo!!!!

Flowering jade tree

Our jade tree is flowering!  The tree is over 35 years old, and probably about 4 feet tall and wide (actually, probably wider...it's got lots of branches!).  David tells me he started the tree after someone fell on a jade tree at a party back in the 70's, and he took off with a small branch.  It spends the summer outside, but comes in for the winter.  After the flowers go away, the leaves start oozing sticky gunk for a few weeks.  That's the phase I least look forward to...

Late fall leaves

I saw these red leaves in the back yard...they were a bit more stunning in person than in this photo, but at least the picture captures a moment in time which will soon be gone.

I'm having a blog dilemma: I'm doing some creative work I'd love to document here, but it's for Christmas presents for people who may be reading this blog!  My next project, though, I'll definitely share...a gift for a friend's daughter which will be a real challenge.  More details to come!

Turkeys!

Granted, it's not the best picture...it's through the window, since if I opened the door Harry would go racing out to scatter them (his favorite sport!).  This time of year, the wild turkeys traipse through our back yard almost every morning.  They're such wonderful, peculiar birds.  Last year, someone started feeding two tom turkeys at my job.  They established themselves quite quickly, and, similarly to Don Quixote and the windmills, decided that the passing cars were their enemies.  They stood in the middle of the road, gobbling like crazy, pecking at car tires as they passed.  Many times I would see an indignant blue turkey head right outside my window.  Eventually those glory days had to pass, and the turkeys were whisked away to some sort of sanctuary (or so we were told).
Anyway, click on the picture and maybe you can get a better view of these turkeys, who have never thought to peck a car tire in all their little blue-headed lives.