My Yard

This is the view from my back door.

He lives under the porch.  He is about the size of my two hands put together.

And he likes to munch the dandelions underneath the truck.  So far we've named him "the little bunny," because there is also a "big bunny" who comes from down by the barn and chases Little Bunny around.

Dave does his best to keep up with the yard.

Amazing how resilient those dandelions are...they bow to the mower, but they pop right back up afterward.  Dave cleaned those chairs for me to sit on while he mowed...that's where I sat to write The Dog Story the other day.

And speaking of resilient, these morning glories are actually growing!

 Despite the fact that I planted them way too early.  They've survived like five overnight freezes.

The ranunculus are also making a courageous go of it, despite being dug up every now and then, obviously by some troubled teen in the neighborhood.

 Did I tell you we have baby birds nesting above the garage?

 They get fed every 5-10 minutes.

Swooooop, flap-flap-flap-flap-flap
Cheeep
CheepCheepCheepCheepCheepCheepCheep


Makes me smile every time.


These aren't in the yard...they're on the kitchen table.  Brilliant yellow freesia.

 They lasted way longer than cut flowers and cost about the same amount.  I never regret buying fresh flowers.  I figured I'd keep them indoors until the flowers fade, then stick them in the garden.  Voila!

Unfortunately, I'm told they won't last the winter in this climate, so I'd have to dig them up, clean the corms, trim them, feed them, spray them with gold dust, wrap them in silk, and lock them in a safe to "rest" for however long until next spring after the last frost.

Yeah.  Not gonna do that.

My cutting from Ginnie's famous fig tree is doing well, too.

 She lost all her leaves when we left her outside overnight during one of those frosts.  She got better, though.

I used to have an African violet.  Sickly thing.  Nothing I did made it happy.

 So I finally said "FINE! You're not happy in this nice warm house with perfect lighting? You don't like that special African violet pot I put you in?  You don't like the African violet food I'm feeding you?  You Never flowered ONCE for me???"

 "You can go live OUTSIDE!...by the cement block thing!"  I'm pretty sure this long, slow death will go much quicker now.

Well...at least the dahlias seem to like it out there.

 Somewhere in this same flower bed are the columbine seeds I planted.  I have no idea if they're coming up, because I can't tell them from the weeds.  I need Ginnie here.  Or I needed to weed before I planted the seeds.

I'd rather have Ginnie here.  Gin, what's going on in this picture??

 These are Dave's allium.

 Planted by the dragon mailbox present he gave me that I love.

 And this healthy, happy little plant is called something like Beautiful Baby Bush or I'm The Pretty One or something like that.  I have totally forgotten what kind of flowers it will supposedly someday produce.

 Maybe there will be no flowers on it at all.  It doesn't really matter to me, because it is a heck of a lot better than the empty iron pot that used to sit there, so depressingly empty.  At least now there is bright, fresh green growing there (very quickly) to fill the space.

Unlike the empty tire pot that sits next to it.

 See that growing thing in there?  It's not a begonia.  We think it's probably a tree of some kind.  I wonder if that troubled teen ate my begonia bulbs/seeds/whatever-they-were-we-planted?

This is our beautiful peach rose bush that will someday give us beautiful roses.

 She's happy where she is.  New growth all over the place.

But the poor white rose bush...
(see it back there? juuuuust poking up above the top of the hosta)

 ...we (I) forgot that there are mammoth hostas already growing in this bed...

...so the white rose bush, while growing heroically, is a little crowded back there...behind that hosta at the bottom of this photo:

 So sad.  Should I move it, do you think?

 I finally hung my beautiful Woodstock windchime the other day.  Dave was leery of it.

But the sound of these bells has followed me on hitch these last two weeks...I keep hearing them, just a faint musical note in the background of life.  Those notes plus the baby birdies chirping...I never imagined a more peaceful, beautiful soundtrack for a Saturday afternoon.  I highly recommend a good windchime (*GOOD* windchimes are not cheap and have a beautiful resonance to their music...the note should hang in the air, like a musical instrument being played, not like a metal pipe being clanged).

This is my wonderful yard.  I really enjoyed it last off-hitch...I really really can't wait to go home in a few days!

Come, please come visit my beautiful yard!  It really is a beautiful yard...it would love to see you!  You could make believe you were in the mountains or something!  It's that beautiful!