What a Beautiful Day!

Got up bright and early today, looking forward to a busy schedule, although self imposed.
Kermit compared me to a hyper chihuahua, and I'd have to say he was right.  Had my two cups of decaf coffee, looked around the yard and made plans.

It's been awhile since we did the whole A Road walk, so we decided to do that after a really nice breakfast.

Off to the store, then back to play in the dirt!

Today was the one day I use a power tool that I love no matter how noisy and dirty using it is.  Chipper shredder, how wonderful you are.

I shredded all of the leaves that were collected in Fall of 2011.  We bag them and pile them up and just let them sit.  They're nice and dry when I go to shred them in the Spring.

A few years ago, I was having the darndest time starting the thing.  So I took it to our local motorcycle shop, and they put a primer on it for me.  Works great since!

I put out the shredded leaves as garden mulch.  Then I chipped/shredded a big pile of garden remnants from Fall.

So I'm very happy to be in and blogging.  That was a physically busy day for me!

Now on to pictures!  I put out the hummingbird feeders this week and we already have resident hummers.  I think one might be a pair, the aggressive one doesn't bother her at all when she is feeding at HIS feeder.  He's a Rufus, first one I've ever had take up living in my garden.  I also saw another one that I think might be a Calliope.  No pictures of that one yet though.

Obligatory Picture of my Cat Pumpkin and Pooch Penny

I don't buy fancy pots for plants very often, but I really liked this one. We turned on the waterfall about April.

I've seen an itty bitty frog, and an itty bitty toad.  Earl has left the premises.  We had a good size thunder storm with lightning one night in April and then the next day he was just...gone.  Hope you found a nice lady frog to run off with Earl.

Hello Spring! Back to Blogging!

I'm back!  But my camera is sitting at school, so you'll have to wait for pictures.

Earl the toad is out and about again, the fish are swimming around instead of just sitting there.  I even put Herkemer P Bunsworthy out in the x-pen while I gardened today.


Today I did a special piece of gardening.  I have owned two very lovely Rottweilers in my life, Hanna and Farro.  Both have passed on and their ashes have been sitting in my office for a long time.  I never quite knew what to do with them.


This past winter, I finally decided I would bury their ashes in my garden because they loved hanging out, watching the world go by while I gardened.  They both sat on the left and right hand sides of the front fence, where they had a good view.  In the left corner is a David Austen rose that blooms in pink starting in May.


We were at a garden center yesterday, and I found two miniature forsythia bushes.  Bright yellow blooms in the very early Spring.  In the summer, they will be 3x3' glossy leaved bushes that will hide the lower stems of the David Austen rose.  I dug triple deep, put their ashes in, covered it with compost, then put the plant in and back filled.  Now they will be in the garden with me always, and it makes me happy in a wistful sense.

No sign of a real winter.

Not a good sign for summer.  Idaho snowpack levels are down.  Spring better be REALLY rainy.


The ground isn't even frozen.  I was able to rake leaves today.  We have a Red Oak that drops it's leaves pretty late.  While I was raking, I picked up the Iris leaves and there are new shoots coming up.


I also dug up an oregano plant out front because it self seeds a little too aggressively.  Did some weeding too.  Very odd for January.

What I've been up to lately

I've been teaching, which I do not have a picture of.  They take ones of me all the time, I'll bring home a few next week.

Then there's the gardening...

A chickadee and finch feeder

General Gardening

Two day haul of veggies:

Now, as anyone who has seen me cook, I am a very messy cook. Sometimes I forget to wear an apron, so I have a collection of Tshirt with olive oil splotches on them.  The splotches never come out.  I finally cleaned up the office so I can do crafts. Last week out came the fabric paints and I did one said shirt to match a pair of pajama pants I got a long time ago from a friend.

I got this plant as a STICK from my friend, neighbor, and coworker. I won a dollar.  Kermit said it wouldn't live.  If I overwinter it correctly, it will be 6' tall next year with BIG white blooms.  Can't remember the name right now, but it's in my garden journal.

So life has been very good lately!

Hummingbirds PII

 It's gotten a little cooler, and the hummingbirds have not been frequenting the yard as much.  Here are some shots of solitary hummingbirds.

Feeder posturing...

One like this was in the yard the other day again.  When they display, you can see the red spot on the throat.

Got a pic of three of them at one time; that was lucky.

A big bumblebee visited while I drank my coffee out in the yard today.  It wasn't as big as Sasquatch, but I got some nice shots.  I'll post those another day.  It's beautiful out there, enjoy your day!

Hummingbirds PI

Ok, it's not one day since the last post.  So I will never say that again.

On to more important matters.  I have watched a lot of hummingbirds this summer.  I have learned a LOT about them.  First, we have more than your standard Roofus hanging around. At one point, we had nine in our yard by our feeders and I could tell three different kinds.

Hummingbirds are not really animal savvy.  They would dive bomb me with the cat on my lap, go right by Penny's mouth, and get waaay to close to Pumpkin than I cared for.  They must be moving on, because I only count two or three these days.  

No wonder they have to eat constantly.  They wouldn't need so much energy if they'd quit chasing each other off the feeders.  Silly birds.

Birds and Bees sharing...

Coming in for a landing...looks like a duck.

My tailfeathers are bigger than yours...

Fuzzybutt

I don't know if this was a juvenile, just floofing to keep warm, or dry off from something.

It has been a true gift this year.  I wasn't saying that when I was refilling the feeders and dumping sugar water on my head.  I miss my big group of hummingbirds now that I'm back at scheduled work.

Part II - until we meet again.

Sasquatch, Loch Ness, have NOTHING on you Bumbler

We've all heard the term “fish story.” We've heard about Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster. Now you can add “Gargantuan Bumbler” to the list.

I have no photographic proof of it's bad ass self FOR NOW. It has now become the stuff of legends, and I will not rest until I can produce a picture of it. Of course, this hobby will be severely limited in Idaho between October and April. None the less, I will be searching.

This Gargantuan Bumbler was HUGE. No joke, its first segment (head) was as big as my pinky nail. I did the only reasonable thing and waited for it to alight onto a sunflower and pet it.

Hence, this gives rise to my other little hobby in the garden. Each year I pick out the biggest bumblebee I can, and I scritch its head. Just a little skerfluffle on the noggin. They don't seem to mind, and I find it quite fun. They are spiky/fuzzy, with a constant vibration. This year, I've done it to two bumblebees.

Since I was too busy petting this Gargantuan Bumbler, I did not get a picture. You will just have to suffice with regular, average bees and bumblebees.

All of the bee pictures were taken with the old Canon Rebel XTi with a 100mm/2.8 macro lens.  I have a picture of a wasp nest that is really cool, but I think I'll save that for Facebook so I can freak out the largest amount of people that I can. : )

Speaking of Gargantuan, I have a very large sunflower in my yard.  We measured it a week ago at 12'4".  This picture was taken a week before that when it was about 11'8".

Here are some more random sunflower pictures.  See you tomorrow, for a hummingbird safari installment!