How Does My Garden Grow?

Ever So Slowly.

 

The weather is not being at all cooperative this spring, if you could call it that. It can’t make up its mind if it wants to hang on to winter a bit longer or jump right on over to summer. I have been trying to get out and do a little bit each day that the weather is nice.
I finally got around to raking out the flowerbed around the deck. There were lots of leaves. The upper ones were dry but as I got lower in the pile closer to the ground it was very moist. Even some small puddles of water.

Before the raking began.

After the raking began.

 

It also disturbed quite a few of the leaf litter dwellers. I saw black beetles scurry away, an inch long brown centipede squiggle away, and about three young wolf spiders ran up the deck wall. Earthworms were also present. I tried to cover them with some soil so they could find their way back underground before they dried out or the birds found them.
When I was starting to rake out around the deck I managed to break the claw rake. It had broken last year but David was able to fix it with super glue. The metal “nail” that held the claw to the handle rusted out this time. I just threw the claw part on this stand. I took out the wooden handle by the shed steps and replaced it with the plastic covered handle from the just broken claw rake. I put the old wooden handle next to the burn barrel. David said the other day that he was needing a new longer stick for stirring the trash as he burns it.

The claw of the rake.

The handle of the rake. The old handle in the background by burn barrel and BBQ.

 

David  bought me this cute little leaf rake to replace the claw rake. It worked well getting into the smaller spaces. I was also able to rake out the soil after I had turned it with a shovel.

Serious face like that famous farm painting.

Happy with my new rake.

 

I pulled all the dead marigold plants out of the junk pile bed on one of my outside days.

I was expecting to find an iris plant there, but I think the gophers found it before the ground froze.

There was now sign of it.

 

The Junk Pile Bed and removed marigold plants.

 

The irises are coming up in the corner of the shed flower bed.

They are also coming up in the bed under the south bedroom window.

The Irises in the corner of shed flowerbed.

 

 

I have been bringing Sully out with me each day too. He is glad to be able to find more available grass to munch. He also has a spot in the lawn that he just sits and smells and drools all over. I can’t tell what is there that is of such interest. I don’t see any catnip in the spot, so there must be some other plant that catches his fancy.

Look at all this grass.

Ahh! Here is my smelly spot!

 

 

Now that I have raked the flower bed I have uncovered some catnip.

A small patch of catnip.

Yeah! Now I don’t have to search for it under the leaf pile.

 

 

The rest of the photos showing the raking of the deck flowerbed.

Took a break, now back to work.

All finished.

The leaf pile is now behind BOB in the grass.

 

 

Sully surveys my work. He finds a clump of grass to nibble. Then he finds his way under the steps. There is no catnip under the steps yet but he did find this tree sapling to nuzzle and drool on.

She did a pretty good job.

Now I can eat this without getting leaves in my mouth.

What a cute little sapling.

 

 

When I finished raking for the day, I decided to just sit on the deck step and enjoy the sunshine on my face. As I looked up at the sky I saw a small black spot in the tree at the far end of the driveway. It was the neighbor’s kitty. I call her Little Blackie because I don’t know her actual name. She is a climber she has startled David and I both when we come outside and she is on our roof. I had to talk her over to the deck area one day so that she could jump down onto the shed roof then onto the deck to get down. One day she startled Dave when she jumped from the roof onto the swamp cooler in the back yard. If she had been in one of the trees over the roof of either trailer this day I would not have been to concerned, but this tree just hangs over the driveway and I didn’t want her to fall from that high up. I decide to walk over to the tree and talk her down. She was a very good listener. She followed my instructions and got safely to the ground. She thanked me by rubbing on my legs, let me give her a couple of pets, and then laying in front of me rolling around. I walked back over to the steps and she found a shady spot to lay in the driveway like nothing even happened. Sully watched it all laying in his comfy, grassy, lawn. He kept an eye on Little Blackie after she laid down in the driveway too.

Yep, that spot is Little Blackie.

Nice shady spot to relax after tree climbing.

You just stay on your end of the driveway.

 

 

Friday I turned a small patch of soil in the deck flowerbed and raked it out with my new rake.
I was able to do a bit of indoor gardening today. I transplanted the four best looking sweet peppers into pots. I then got some green bell peppers started in an egg crate.

The Transplanting.

 

 

That is where I stand in the yardening this week. We are supposed to get some more of that white fluffy stuff again, starting Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday afternoon. We could get around 6 inches. I don’t think it will actually accumulate since the ground is still pretty warm so hopefully it does a lot of melting. So you see the weather is taking another turn back towards winter. I really wish it would stop doing that.

 

 

 

 

 

Icicles and Shadows

 

Yesterday morning as I looked out the kitchen window I noticed the icicles hanging down in front of the window. Some of them were pretty long. I decided to take my camera with me when I went to the shed to get Milly some fresh water and fill her food bowl.

I didn’t know what the photos look like until I got back inside. I basically am shooting blind when taking outdoor photos in full sunshine. The camera screen is just a dark square. I just kind of guesstimate what is in the frame and hope for the best.

 

I took this photo of the icicle hanging off the drain spout for the shed roof.

When I first glanced at it, it looked like a contrail in the sky.

I like that I captured the drop of water at the tip getting ready to fall.

 

The rest of the photos are of the south side of the house. The sun is behind me, so there are shadows of the icicles and of the trees that line the south side of the driveway on the house. I think that just added to the beauty.

 

 

Frosty February Winter Wonderland

 

Once the sun finally came up, this is the beautiful wintery world I got to look at on Monday. I knew I needed to get photos outside not just looking out the windows. I had to go check on Milly in the shed so I brought my camera along. I took these in a scenic walk to the shed.

Standing on the back steps. Looking southwest towards the county road.

 

Still on the steps, looking south across the field.

Frosty plants near fence.

Frosty plants in foregroud and the field and treeline in background

A few feet to the east still looking across field.

Continuing to walk to the east.

Bunch of trees in the southeast corner of field.

A few feet to the north still looking at the bunch of trees in south east corner.

Looking to the northeast of field.

Standing on the deck, looking to the east.

Still on the deck, looking towards the bunch of trees in the southeast corner of field with ridges in background.

A little more to the south.

A bit more to the south with nice frosty tree in upper right corner.

Where Have I Been?

No where really.

 

I am still here.

Just not much happening. I have been spending most of my time crocheting now that it is full on winter. So that relates into doing more of my blogging over at my sister site Skrappy Skarves. I have been doing at least 3 posts a week over there. Wednesdays are for posting works in progress, I started a Throw Back Thursdays using crochet posts from this blog, and on Fridays I post about any projects that I might have finished that week.  So if you want to keep up with me you can head on over there if crochet talk does not bore you too much. 😀

I don’t go out much because it is cold. I have no yard or gardening things to do.

I have done a bit of snow shoveling.

 

I do go out once a day to check on Milly the Shed cat. I make sure her food is full and her water is not frozen. I remove the ice if it is and give her fresh water.

It has been unseasonably warm for the last week and a half so that has made Christmas Shopping more enjoyable.

                       clip art stock photo

 

I also have been staying cozy in bed watching dvds I have been borrowing from the library. I have been watching Arrow. I had borrowed Season Four two weeks ago but did not finish it. I could not continue on after they were going to bring a character back to life that had been dead and buried for I think at least 3 months. I feel it is hard to tell how much time has passed sometimes in a series from one season to the next let alone from episode to episode. I really think my problem with bringing this character back to life is I didn’t really care for her and was not too upset by her passing. They brought another character back using the same procedure after she had died but I liked that character. I don’t even think she was actually dead yet, she had been on life support in a hospital when they flew her to the place to be “cured”. I guess depending how long the flight was, if she was dead it was at least less than a day but not much more than that. So I thought I would take a break from Arrow.

I have also been watching The Flash as it is a spin-off/crossover from Arrow. I think I am actually enjoying it more than Arrow. I am glad that I am watching them both at the same time because of this so when The Flash mentions someone or something from/about Arrow I am not totally in the dark. It is also good that I have watched more seasons of Arrow for the same reason. I just finished Season Two of The Flash. I will probably borrow Season 3 of The Flash after the Holidays. I will also give Season 4 of Arrow another try. Now that I have cooled down about the bringing a certain character back. I also went to IMDb to read how the season played out, there was a lot more exciting things going on later in the season that I would actually care about. Yes, another character is brought back from the dead, but I liked him and his rebirth seems plausible. I know these are all based on comic books from back in the day, so people were always dying off and coming back in some fantastical way. I just feel some of them make more sense to me then others.

I was finally able to borrow the 3rd Season of Outlander. This is such an awesome series based on the book series of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. I have only read one book in the series, “A Breath of Snow and Ashes” it was the sixth book at the time I read it. Her books are not short either each one is around a thousand pages or more. So I was glad to get into the tv series from the start. When you read the sixth book in the series first you really don’t feel like going back to the beginning book, well at least I didn’t. Besides she gave enough background and flashback type scenes I didn’t feel I really needed to go back.

I also borrowed the first season of Ash vs. Evil Dead. I liked it. It teamed Bruce Campbell with Lucy Lawless again. It also stayed true to the movies.

I have also thrown a few movies into the mix of dvd watching. Some newer titles and some older ones. The newer titles included Spiderman- Homecoming, Black Panther, Ready Player One, Kong: Skull Island and The Avengers: Infinity Wars. The older titles included Die Hard 4 film collection,  The Flight of the Phoenix, Aliens and Cowboys, and How The West Was Won.

I am hoping that the library will be starting their Adult Winter Reading Program after the holidays. I will then be doing more reading than crocheting. I want to continue reading a series I started on my kindle app. It is by Jeffery Archer. I also may read a few books in the Lincoln Rhyme Series by Jeffery Deaver.

Well for not much going on I sure have blabbered on for quite a while. 😀

Three Mornings In A Row We Had The Snow

 

I took this first group through the windows. That is why some of them look a bit blurry because of condensation on the windows. I was not going out in it. The turkeys had to be out in it. They had their feathers all fluffed up to help stay warm though. This snow was melted by the end of the day.

 

Day two’s snow amount was a bit more than the first day and it also was mostly gone by the end of the day. I again took the photos through the windows. I got a totally awesome shot of the two trees with their leaves and the field and pine trees behind them.

South field and two hay swiss rolls.

West end of field and county road. This one is my amateur photography quality shot.

North field in back yard.

North field with snow covered ridge in the far background.

 

The third day had the largest snow amount. This snow also was almost gone by the end of the day. It was the warmest of the three days also, reaching a high of around 51 degrees. These photos were taken outside. I had to go out to take care of Milly the Shed Cat. I took photos of the fields south of the house again and east of the house.

East field.

East end of south field.

South field.

West end of South field and county road.

 

I also took photos of my poor flowers covered in snow. The petunias were still looking good at the end of the day. They are some hardy flowers. The marigolds are also still hanging in there. I was surprised to see that the asylum were still ok. They are such as cute and dainty flower.

Gladioulus covered in ice that dripped off the shed roof.

The wildflower bed.

The cosmos and petunia bed.

The whole deck.

The south bedroom window bed of marigolds.

The west bedroom window and corner of the south bedroom window beds.