Reflections From the Fence: spring

Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

Monday, March 20, 2023

First Day of Spring 2023, WAHOOOO!

It's been a slug through January, February and March. One epic ice storm, a once in 50 year kind. It took down so many tree limbs and branches, which we still have not cleaned up. It's too much for us, and the tree dudes had roofs to clean, we only have yard debris. Storm and following ssss (snow) storm decimated our beautiful fir tree. Very sad to see it out my office window daily.

Two ssss storms, first dumped at least 10 inches of heavy heavy wet snarky ssss. After cleaning it off the vehicles, I decided it ranked in the top 5 ssss storms I have had to clean up after. Don't ask me to name the others, cause my ole leaky memory isn't that good. My ranking was to indicate, it was snarky cleaning up. Then, we had another ssss storm that was about 7.5 inches, which happily was a much easier clean up.

I really am not whining tooooo much, after watching the storms out west. Friend in Flagstaff, UGHHA, now, that's some ssss fall totals, eh?? And, poor California.

Over at the park, in the conservatory, they have a spring bulb show running. I took Sony 4 over there and enjoyed some color and joy. Here are a few shots - -

Amaryllis, with the leaves trimmed off. That surprised me, as I let my one and only amaryllis have it's leaves and it's blooms too!

Daffs and hydrangeas. Blue and yellow, lovely. Note the deep purple tulips in the background.

These are tulips. Large blooms and so striking.

Lookie what they did with violets. Three in one pot. I am considering trying this myself.

And, lastly - - when the ice storm damaged so much, the park personnel found these "saucer" magnolia branches on the ground. They forced them like many do with forsythia and look how beautiful they are. I call this a "tulip" magnolia, same thing as saucer, just different names. I do not have one in my yard. Should have planted one tho. SIGHH. So pretty.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Back in SE Michigan at the Sticks N Bricks

Copyright 2014, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We arrived back in SE Michigan at the sticks n bricks about a week ago.

After the long and really horrific winter Michigan experienced, we were curious, how would the flora and fauna have done?

Well, so far, down at the bridge, the water is not nearly has high as we would have imagined. One neighbor says it was the "slow" melt, no flooding.

I have seen one young deer in the yard grazing. I heard one morning VERY early the unique chatter of some sand hill cranes, believe they are back in the swamp (see photo above).

My miniature grape hyacinths are at peak. They are all of about 3 inches tall.

We found lots of mole trails, they sure can burrow long distances. Due to the long lasting snow we found areas in the yard where mice had built grass nests resulting in bare patches in the lawn.

The wild violets are blooming all around the flower beds, they self seed, they pop up everywhere, and I don't have the heart to pull them all out. I do so love volunteers!

My tulips have actually come back some, I have more blooms this year than a few years ago. Not saying much, but, since I thought they were all gone, I'll smile.

Of course, the thistle survived. Thistle ALWAYS survives. Did I ever tell you how much I really dislike thistle??

The daffodils have died off, except for this one really nice patch:

The star magnolias, well, the white one, shown here, has some blooms, I have seen more. The pink magnolia, had about 5 blooms, really sad. I hope I don't loose it. The wind was blowing - -

The dandelions are blooming profusely.

Perhaps the most pathetic was the forsythia. Sad beyond words, the cold weather must have frozen the flower buds right off? This seems to be the story in all of SE Michigan, several friends report the same lack of blooms:

Yesterday was the first time I had seen the geese in the yard and pond. This morning I saw a couple with 2 small babies, still yellow, which indicates they are very new hatchlings. (No photo).

We have a cardinal building a nest on the north side of the house, and in a bush on the south side, lookie what we found:

And, a few hours later, I found mom cardinal sitting on the nest. Photo taken through the window. She built this where we may be able to see the babies, IF the bush does not put out leaves between us and the nest.

Late last evening I spied 3 purple finches in this same bush, all males. I am not sure if they were trying to raid the nest or what.

Sooo, looks like Man and I are gonna be grandparents to some cardinal babies. Maybe - -

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Hurry Up of Spring, Michigan Style

Man and I have been back at the stick built in Michigan for 17 days, give or take, just a bit over 2 weeks. The flowers and shrubs have been hurrying right along, forsythia in full bloom when we arrived, now, past prime. Daffodils, just about finished for the year. No tulips when we got home, my 3 sad loners have since popped up and have been blooming every day since. My wild violets have gone wild! The flowering crabs bloomed too, one in the front yard was probably as pretty as it has ever been.

I have been taking photos of some of the plants in the different stages of bloom. Got this idea from Linda at Flipside, who posted a Wordless Wednesday one week of a flower from bud to full bloom. Neat idea Linda, thanks! I created a couple of collages with the best of the best.

Above is my Korean Spice. The photo top left was taken on the 20th of April. Bottom right, yesterday. Middle, today. Now, if I could only share the scent! Heavenly!

Above, (ya, I know, not a collage) is my white star magnolia. Both the white and pink star magnolias were sparse on the blooms this year. The pink is such a pale pink that it is difficult to tell the difference between the two.

Above, the other collage. Bleeding hearts, top left was taken April 14th, top right was taken April 20th and the large photo, taken with the macro lens was taken April 29th.

Yep, spring is moving fast round here.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Spring Forward

Yep, spring forward, and it is happening around Gulf Shores. One day nadda, seems like almost over night POP! Spotted during our drive over to Daphne on Friday were tulip magnolias that were already dropping a few of their precious flowers, crab apples in FULL bloom and I even saw a few daffodils (no photos of the daffodils, but, they were as yellow as yellow can be!)