Sky Watch Friday

Storm clouds forming to give a much needed drink to thirsty plants.

Join Sky Watch to view other beautiful pictures.

Watery Wednesday - Webster Falls

Last fall I took a road trip to visit this waterfall and thought I would use it for Watery Wednesday.

Native Plant Profile - Wood Poppy

The Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) is just starting to bloom in my large woodland garden.  Its' yellow blooms light up my shade garden and it is hardy from Zone 3 to 10.

The flower is only partially open in this picture.

The flowers face upward when in full bloom, have four large petals and masses of stamens in the center.  The leaves are large, deeply divided into lobed segments and grow from the base of the plant.

It will grow to a height of 1 1/2 feet tall in partial shade in a rich neutral  to slightly acid soil. During periods of drought, the leaves may wither or turn yellow so mulching will help to retain moisture.  The wood poppy readily self seeds, so you will have seedlings for transplant if you wish.

Although it is sometimes called celandine poppy, don't confuse it with the non-native and invasive celandine (Chelidonium majus), which looks very similar but behaves much more aggressively.

It will look wonderful combined with wild phlox (Phlox divaricata), white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) or false Solomon's seal (Simlacina racemosa).

Consider it for your shade garden.

Mosaic Monday - In The Garden

For this weeks' Mosaic Monday I thought I would show some

blooms and foliage from my garden.

 

The Double Bloodroot is in full flower and I have one small purple Iris in bloom, which I was very happy to find.  The Magnolia 'Susan' is almost in full bloom. 

For some reason my daffodils are slow to bloom, but the tulips are going gangbusters, go figure. The pansies have been showing their happy faces for weeks.  

To enjoy other wonderful mosaic join our host Mary at Little Red House. 

Camera Critters - Large Toad

I was taking pictures of the action in the backyard Friday and noticed the chipmunk digging a hole by the pond, I focused on it to take some pictures.  But, what is this, he is digging down between the pond liner and the river rocks.  This will not do, so off I go to interrupt his joy, I ask him what does he think he is doing and I get that look. You know the one the kids gave you when they know and you know they have done something wrong, "Who Me".  He scurries off under the deck, I put the river rocks back into the hole and glance across the pond, to see this....

You can see by the water trail this toad was leaving the pond.  Two opinions come to mind. It is a female toad and she has laid eggs in the pond, or she/he had spent the winter on the bottom and was leaving its' wintering ground.  Time will tell. 

Either way you can see it is enjoying the early morning sunshine.

Hop on over to Misty Dawn for more Camera Critters.

Skywatch Fridays

The weather has been sunny for several days, so I drove up the road to the cornfields to get this sunset. The sky can change many colors during a sunset, but I decided to capture the sun just before it settled below the horizon.

A beautiful yellow setting sun against the dark cornstalks. 

This is my first time joining

Skywatch Fridays

Native Plant Profile - Prairie Smoke

Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) is native to open woods, meadows or plains. It does wonderful along the edge of my woodland garden or in my sunny garden.

As you can see the leaves grow from the base of the plant and are approximately 9" long and fernlike.   In fact they remind me of dandelion leaves.

The flowers bloom from late April into June and look a bit like rosehips, they are followed by masses of 2" long pink, wispy, plume-like seed tails. 

Prairie Smoke prefers average, well-drained soil and dry to average moisture, in full sun to partial shade  making it an excellent choice  for my sandy soil. It is hardy from Zone 3 to 9 and can be propagated in fall from seed sown where the plants are grown or by division in late summer.  But it is not fussy as I have dug  babies in the spring and transplanted them to another location with no problem. You should consider adding this wonderful spring flowering plant to your garden.

Sundays Mode of Transportation

I mentioned on my Mosaic Monday post that hubby and I went for a Sunday afternoon drive in his, I called it a Vintage, but he informs me it's a Classic, car. Several of you requested a sighting of this mode of transportation, so I snapped some shots after its' spa treatment yesterday.

To me it feels similar to riding in a go-kart and climbing out can be a challenge, definitely not a pencil skirt car, at least not without some assistance.

I had quite a work out that day getting in and out with a tripod and camera. 

But the weather was sunny, not warm enough to have the top down, with big fluffy clouds, a

picture perfect day.

Mosaic Monday - A Test of Time

Hubby wanted to give his vintage car a run and I wanted to take pictures of old silos, so we did both and went for a Sunday afternoon drive.  This is what I found...

These old silos are still standing decades later, reminders of our past. 

Join Mary at Little Red House to view some fabulous mosaics.

Straight out of the Camera

This Yellow Warbler stopped by for a bath and drink at dusk last night on his migration to his breeding ground.  This bird is a common victim of the brown-headed cowbird, which tosses out the warbler's eggs and replaces them in the nest with its own.  But the yellow warbler simply builds more nest on top to cover the cowbird eggs.  As many as six stories of nest have been found covering cowbird eggs. The female will lay 4 or 5 bluish white eggs with brown markings and then incubates them for 11 to 12 days. The young will leave the nest in 9 to 12 days.

The yellow warbler will nest in hedges, roadside thickets, stream banks and garden shrubbery.  They dine exclusively on insects, including many destructive ones and their larvae.

For more straight out of the camera shots visit

http://www.murrieta365.com/

Camera Critters - Chipmunk

We had three chipmunks in the yard in the very early spring, the snow was still on the ground, and it dawned on me the other day that I have not seen them for two weeks, you know what that means.  When they return the number 3 will have multiplied by how many babies each had.  Now we have a Chipmunk Convention going on in the yard.  They will eat the flower buds, the tops of the beets, the lettuce, carrot tops or anything they deed tasty and that changes from year to year.  I had to go into the archives to find this picture of one of last years delegates getting a drink from the pond.

Visit our host Misty Dawn at http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/ for more great pictures.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - April 2010

Welcome to my show for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day  I do not have a lot blooming today in the garden. The Bloodroot and Hepatica I showed you the other day but the Forsythia has been in flower for a week.

There are only two King Alfred Daffodils in bloom, sad case. But others have green shots showing.

The Hellebores have quite a display.

The Scilla have self seeded around the garden and are giving a lovely blue showing.

Be sure to check what other garden bloggers have blooming in their garden.

Wild flowers in the Garden

In early spring you will find me sitting on the contemplation bench in my large woodland garden.  Here I sit and watch the trees and birds. Today the hepatica was in bloom, it is a good plant for the dry woodland. It prefers neutral soil, full of organic matter in semishade.  The clumps can be divided or started from seeds, which ripen in late spring and require cold moist stratification.

Hepatica

Bloodroot

The bloodroot is also in bloom but they don't last long and are easily de-petalled by wind.  The leaves will clasp the stem and slowly unfurl to reveal large saucer shaped but deeply scalloped leaves.  During mid summer dry periods it will start to yellow and can go dormant, so mulching will help conserve moisture.  The seeds of Bloodroot are dispersed by ants, so I have a few new clumps every year. They do all the work of transplanting for me. How nice is that.

Mosaic Monday - Sunshine

The weather this week has been cold, wet and cloudy and I have been indoors for most of it.  But, a sunny warm weekend has allowed me to be in the garden.  So, to celebrate, I have decided to bring a bit of sunshine to Mosaic Monday.  I hope you had wonderful weather for your weekend.

To see more fantastic mosaics visit Little Red House

Frog for the Garden

Had a visit with my Dad this afternoon and came away with this frog,  he had bought it for my garden.

 The frog is certainly a loud color and will need to be auditioned in a few locations before the perfect place is found...maybe peaking out of the Iris, a hosta or fountain grass. For now it sits on my kitchen island with some house plants. 

The weather this week has been so cold and wet, there was even snow this afternoon.  But, the weatherman has promised warmer temperatures for the weekend and coming week.  I have my fingers and toes crossed hoping he is right.  Hope you have great gardening weather this weekend :)

Quilt Challange

  One of my challanges for the spring was to finish the 9 blocks of McKenna Ryan's 'Faith, Hope, Love' quilt and I have finially accomplished that.  I purchased the 9 patterns and fabric as a kit while my son was in Afghanistan with the Canadian Army. The fabric is nature inspired and each pattern title conveyed how I was feeling or trying to feel at the time.  I am going to quilt each block individually and mount on a stretched canvas frame, thereby getting 9 small quilts to hang together in a grouping.

Block names First row: Majesty and Peace

Block names Second row: Hope and Harmony

Block names: Faith and Promise

Block names: Love and Awaiting

This last block is called Tenderness.  My son has been back for almost a year and is doing well.  I love the quilt as much now as when I first saw it on line almost 2 years ago.  I can take one more project off my UFO list...Yahoo!, only one more to finish and upteen dozen to quilt.

Mosaic Monday - Easter Visitors

There was a small gathering of only six around our Easter table this year, but outside was a different story.  The garden was very busy with traffic, everyone coming for a quick snack.  I could not resist making my mosaic with photos of the birds who visited the garden.

Visit out host Mary at Little Red House

for more mosaics.

Camera Critters - Enthusiasm

I spent most of the yesterday morning watching the birds in the backyard.  Do you think this Starling is wondering if he has an enthusiastic mate?

It could almost be called a faceplant drink!

More great photos can be found at Camera Critters.

What's Happening In My Brown Garden

I started the day with the intention to clean house, the family will be here for Easter and the dust bunnies must be rounded up.  But everytime I came into the kitchen a bird would be out in the yard and I would spend valuable time trying to capture it.

Today the Song Sparrow stood still long enough for me to finially snap its' picture.

The goldfinches would sit in the lilac outside the kitchen window, drop to the garden below and rumage for nesting material. As you can see they are changing to their bright summer plumage.

Around lunch the bird activity slowed and I gave up chasing dust bunnies and went outside to the garden. The Eranthis hyemalis (Winter aconite) are blooming.

This clump forming tuber bears stalkless, cup shaped, yellow flowers that are 2 - 2.5 cm (3/4 - 1 in.) across from late winter to early spring.  A dissected, leaf like bract forms a ruff beneath each bloom.  It will grow in part sun and prefers well drained soil.  It is a toxic plant, so pets and children should be watched if you have it growing in your garden.