flowers, flowers, flowers

The aloe in the living room is at it again.  Here's the flower stalk. Two buds this time. There will certainly be pictures when it blooms. When it's done my friend Beth will help me repot it. It needs a bigger pot, but a bigger pot won't fit on the shelf, and it clearly loves this space. Maybe Beth and I can figure out something.

It was hot enough to be out in a tank top. But did I put on sunscreen? No. Did I go in when I felt my back getting really warm? No. (Heavens! I would’ve had to take off my dirty garden shoes and gloves.) So now my back looks and feels like a cooked lobster. Dumb dumb dumb.

But I got a lot done. Half of one flower bed doesn’t sound like much, but believe me, it is.

About 4pm Ernie wanted his dinner and the sky clouded over. Bright overcast often produces nice pictures, so after I took care of Ernie I went out with the camera. If you look at the Venal pools entry in April, you’ll see a great picture of the bloodroot when they first came out. Now the leaves have emerged, each one surrounding an individual bloom like a little coat with a standup collar, and the blossoms have started to go by.

There’s a macro setting on the camera that I’m trying to learn to use well, but you have to hold the camera really steady and now I know I’m not so good at that when I’m propped on my elbow on the ground. So I think I’ll use the zoom, since I mess with the images anyway. I’m still fascinated with daffodils.

 

  

No, I did not take this picture on purpose. The bee was there. Discovery is what makes image processing fun.

For instance, the pulmonaria, which has two colors of flowers. This is less than 15% of the original picture, but the color balance (thank you, flowers!) and the out-of-focus background (thank you, camera) made for a great closeup.

Time for supper, and then catching up on "inside work". Paying the April bills would be a good thing.

A very satisfactory day

Thelma is recouping from a hip replacement.  Betsy is staying with her at least until May 12 (the post-op visit), and I help with chores one evening during the week, and Saturday and Sunday morning.  So this morning was chore morning, and then  "restorative coffee", while we despaired of the weather.  The forecast had been for mostly sunny and the best we could make out was mostly cloudy.

But it turned bright, sunny and warm in the late morning and I spent the afternoon gardening.  I set up another 3' x 18" raised bed for BEETS and a couple of basil plants, next to the bed that keeps me in lettuce all summer.  Then (since raised beds need to be filled with soil) I decided to see how much compost I had.

I am a lazy composter.  I have two big round bins, without covers, and an informal small pile way back in the yard.  I think these are basically for leaves, which I don't really have) but all spring and summer I pile in horse manure, plant stalks, lawn clippings (when the grass grows too thick to leave the clippings on the lawn) and kitchen waste.  I throw in some dirt from time to time. In August I take the bins down, turn the piles, and put the bins back up.  That's it.  In the spring I remove the top layer of plant junk, dig out the compost from the bottom, and put the remainder of the pile back together.

Last week I'd taken down one bin and put the compost around some struggling lilacs and some plants that are by the shed. This is an area that isn't really a garden but could use attention from time to time.  So I only had the other bin, and the small pile in the back.

Wow! There was enough compost in the back pile to fill the new raised bed!  And there was enough compost from the other round bin to make an impressive soil improvement in the veggie part of the garden, with some left over for the flowers!  I was surprised, because my laziness doesn't serve the garden well most of the time. 

Now I'm excited. The lettuce survived the snow and is coming along pretty well.  I'll start some spinach and beets now and transplant the parsley that's been over-wintering in the house. The bean seeds go in May 15, and I'll buy the tomato plants to put in around Memorial Day. I might try some Swiss Chard this year. If I work my way through the flower beds an hour every day after work and several hours each weekend, the place should be in decent shape by the end of May.

Unless it snows again.

Humph ...

Remember this, from last week?

And this?

This is 5pm today, with more expected overnight.

.

'Nuff said.

Vernal pools, egg clusters and trillium

This afternoon I spent 2+ hours on a nature trek. At Town Meeting, a Brookfield resident who works for The Nature Conservancy in Montpelier announced that he was interested in hosting several "field trips" within Brookfield, and asked people to sign up, so I did.

I missed the first walk because the email had a strange subject line and was from someone I didn't know, so I deleted it. This hike came with the subject line "Brookfield Adventure Group", and it was a trip way up on the Chelsea side of Brookfield (very close to the middle of nowhere). Two members of the group live up there on 50 acres, a good deal of which is very unusual forest wetlands, and 8 people gathered there to go exploring, guided by the owners.

A vernal pool is a wet spot (and it can be very wet indeed) that dries out in the summer. We went to what the hosts believed was a vernal pool, but it had lots of plants growing in it, and tadpoles swimming. "Not a vernal pool", said Jon from the Nature Conservancy. "A marsh".  Vernal pools do not have vegetation growing in them. However, not much further, there was a Classic Vernal Pool, with wood frog egg clusters and (I believe) salamander egg clusters. There were mosquito larvae swimming merrily (looks like a bad skeeter season), and water striders, and a tiny frog.

These egg clusters are surrounded by a very thin permeable membrane which fills with water when the eggs are laid. On the right is a cluster of (I think) spotted salamander eggs, which are always hitched to a twig. In fact, salamanders look for twiggy pools. On the left is a cluster of wood frog eggs, about 5" wide. PLEASE click on the picture, to enlarge it.  Take in those incredible colors. People who know their insects, for instance, Kate, will see Caddis fly larvae. (Sorry about the branch.) 

Spring flowers were starting here - it's several hundred feet higher and therefore colder. We saw Spring Beauty (too hard to get a picture), Dog-Toothed violets (not in bloom yet), blue, white and yellow violets, and Red Trillium. Most of the trillium in my neighborhood got washed away with West Street. But on the way home I noticed some by the roadside. The trillium (left) in my yard are just up, too, along with a tiny little struggling Spring Beauty. My Bloodroot are flourishing.

The highlight of the afternoon was the sighting of a woodcock, a bird which I had never seen.  It's a medium-sized, squat, brown bird that blends in perfectly with dried and dead leaves. 

If it hadn't moved, we wouldn't have seen him.  It walks strangely, bobbing back and forth with every step.  According to our hosts, they are all over these woods.

Our group was a real bunch of experienced nature-lovers, all out of my league. The organizer is Director of Land Protection for the Nature Conservancy. Our landowners are very active in local conservation movements. One man captures local moths and butterflies, breeds them, and lets them go. One woman works for the Vermont Land Trust, and another is a board member for the North Branch Nature Center. The last member of the group is an "outdoor educator" at a local private school.  I was afraid I was out of my element. But no! I knew the dog-tooth violet by its leaf, and was the first to identify the Spring Beauty.  Everyone else seems to know trees and birds. Of course, the Nature Conservancy guy know everything,  and is really delightful.

Jon and Jen are planning one outing each month. I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Spring in Brookfield, Part 1 of ???

My oh my, I do enjoy Spring. My daffs are often the first ones out.

Daffodils by the brook.

Daffodils by the house

Rhubarb!  Rhubarb!

And the true harbinger of Spring-Is-Here-To-Stay

The first violets

Part 2 of ??? another time ...

It was certainly spring in Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield, NJ. As I drove south from Vermont, pale greens emerged and grew brighter. Buds became furled leaves. Then those leaves unfurled. Finally the spring outburst of flowering bulbs and trees was complete. It had been so hot in NJ the previous two days – one day in the 90’s! – that many of the trees had begun to go by. Most weeping cherries were pale and dropping blossoms like flies. I didn’t have time for many picture-searching detours, and this is the best magnolia I could find.

The crabs were in full flower.

Then there were the redbuds.  The blossoms erupt from the stems, and the leaves come later. So all you see is branches wrapped in pink and white.

Thundercloud cherry is another of my favorite trees, and they were at peak as well, and I didn’t have the camera. First to appear are a cloud of small pink single blossoms, joined by deep purple leaves that produce such a dark background for the blossoms that the origin of the name is obvious. It’s a wonderful spring tree without a bit of green on it during flowering time, and is a wonderful contrast to all the other shades of green in the yard and on the street. I really regret having no pictures. There are good pictures here and here.

About the only time I heave a heavy sigh about living in Vermont is that I am unable to grow either a redbud or a Thundercloud. If either were hardy in Zone 4 they’d be growing around here.

I returned to Vermont today and Spring found its way here! The daffodils are up, more have buds, many are blooming, and there are lots of little blue chinodoxia. Pictures maybe tomorrow, if the sun is out, but I’m tired from a long drive on an upset stomach. Ernie, by the way, seems to have enjoyed his stay at Thelma’s but was very happy to get outdoors.

Easter parade

A parade of spring shoots - the temperatures zoomed to 70 on Friday and 78 on Saturday and plants shot out of the ground.

Here's some sedum, in the rock garden.

Bleeding Heart, by the living room door

Lupine, by the living room door

Daylilies by the driveway

Lilacs in the back yard.  They'll be light purple and the leaves will be dappled green and white.

The rhubarb is peeking through, as well as iris, golden glow (a tall yellow flower that I have a large clump of), the bachelor's button, the pulmonaria, violets, and a solitary columbine.

I'm very excited about going to NJ at the end of the week, and seeing my sweeties and my good friends.