Spring, where are you?

Well, I guess some parts of the country would consider our 40-50 degree highs spring like, but I DON'T!  I'm done with it!  I want some real Spring!

I went out searching in the yard.  Harvested a big bunch of lettuce that had been covered against lows as low as 22 degrees the other night.  So far I haven't had to buy any lettuce this winter.

Anyhoo -- I found these harkenings of springtide:

The hellebores (lenten roses) are blooming.  Of course, no surprise that -- they're supposed to bloom in January!

But this . . . the first daffodil of the season!  Used to, I could count on the first daffodil to bloom about the second week of February.  But this year, and last year also -- blooming on January 30.  If we have several sunny days (we've had over 9 inches of rain in January!), then I'll be bringing bunches into the house by the middle of this coming week.

I have not been successful in taking good pictures of the birds at my feeders outside the kitchen window -- but every day we are seeing flocks of goldfinches, purple finches, some red-breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, and two bluebird pairs!  And the little Carolina wrens are flitting around beginning to build nests in whatever little corners they can find.

This sums up the day . . . .

Another "Noteshelf" app journal page created on my iPad today.

Too cold.

Sleet.

Watching birds at the feeder -- a pair of bluebirds have been showing up daily over the past week, along with a downy woodpecker, a cardinal couple, several chickadees (of course!), red breasted nuthatches, and juncos.

And I've had my 5 yr old grandson Aydan here all afternoon (and evening).  So the wooden trains are snaking out into the upstairs hall and the girls' old wooden dollhouse, flower fairies and and gnomes are getting a good workout.

Early Autumn Garden

hummingbird vine in full bloom

It's been a while since we've done a garden tour so here's an update on what's happening here at Chickadee Garden.  This summer has been very hot and dry, and with launching #3 daughter off to college and settling into a new routine of homeschooling with only one child left at home, occasional babysitting of grandchildren, and working on several new endeavors -- I'm afraid both the garden and the blog have felt some neglect.  But today is a chilly, rainy day -- daughter #4 is upstairs doing her algebra assignment, with the rain I can't get out and set in the fall garden plants I purchased -- so here I am.

tulip magnolia

Remember my tulip magnolia back in the spring?  It had blossomed out quite early, with record warm temperatures, but then got zapped by a frost that blackened all of the blooms.  During the late summer it made new flower buds (the drive to reproduce and make seeds is very powerful), and now it is blooming, with the leaves still on the tree.

Not as floriferous as in the spring -- but still very nice.

A gerbera daisy I rescued from the "dead and dying" mark-down section at Lowe's -- it has limped along over the past month or so, but now seems fully revived.

perennial ageratum (a eupatorium)

We have a narrow strip between our driveway and the neighbor's driveway, that I have filled with common daylillies (cars can drive over them, they don't need extra watering, and are just tough as nails).  Blue flowered perennial ageratum comes up amongst the foliage, self seeds and spreads, and also needs no care.

This photo shows the blue color a bit better, in the strip by the sidewalk.

This is some perennial helianthus (sunflower), which comes up next to the rose "The Fairy", which has bloomed throughout the summer.

The "Knock-Out" rose has also bloomed all summer long.

I have native passion vine that comes up every year around the mailbox and by my front arbor.  This time of year finds it covered with the caterpillars of the gulf frittilary butterfly.  Passion vine is the only plant the caterpillars can eat.  No passion vine, no gulf frittilaries.

The pond is looking good.  There are several leopard frogs that live in it, along with some mosquito fish and comet goldfish that I threw in when I thought the mosquito fish had died off.

We have made some progress in the backyard, having fenced off the back for the chickens, so they don't rampage everywhere.  The 3 new girls and the 3 old ones all play nicely together now.

Still working on painting the new coop.

And after the heat and drought of this summer, decided not to try to grow grass in this shady part of the backyard, but just keep it covered with pine straw (a la Florida style landscaping).

It's finally quit raining so hard outside, so I'll hit "post", take the dogs out, and check on the chickens before it starts back up!

Linking to Tuesday Garden Party; Sunny Simple Sunday

Six Ways to Make Your Outdoor Space Sparkly and Magical!

My garden is a magical place.  There are always new surprises, and children and neighbors in our subdivision make a point to take walks along our street to see what new magic there might be.


6 ways you can bring magic to your garden:

1.  Bring movement into your garden with items that catch the "merry little breezes"* -- like a colorful flag or banner, ribbons, or prayer flags.

Scatter wind chimes around the trees,

Place chimes around the house.

And garden spinners.  Placing flags, chimes, and spinners where they can be seen or heard from indoors -- close to a window or door, will bring outdoor delights even when you are sitting in your house.

2.  Spruce up your entrance with a colorful welcome mat.

3.  Paint your mailbox.

Glue a ceramic bird on it.

4.  Glue jewels on the sidewalk or place some in a beautiful bowl or clay saucer near the sidewalk and listen to little children tell their mothers about the jewels when they pass by.

A garden cat always brings some sparkle.

5.  Hang a whimsical birdhouse or bird feeder just for looks.

6.  And of course hang a functional bird feeder, especially a hummingbird feeder, and invite the magic of living creatures into your garden.

Pick one small thing to do this week, whether it is in the backyard for your personal enjoyment, or the front yard so your neighbors can experience some magic, and invite the faeries into your outdoor space.  It will bring you outdoors more often, too, even if it's just to take a turn about the garden while holding a refreshing drink during our summer heat.


*"the merry little breezes" are the children of Old Mother West Wind that like to play in The Green Meadows in the animal stories written by Thornton W. Burgess, first published in 1910.


Linking to Tuesday Garden Party

Garden Visitor

The other day I had put Trixie Lou McMuttsley outside, only to have to go back out after her to hush her incessant barking.  She had found this guy?lady? lurking in the depths of the daylilly foliage between our driveway and our neighbor's driveway.

Look at the bright orange markings on this eastern box turtle's legs!  I have found box turtles before (last year there was one in our yard), but I have never seen one with such bright orange on the legs.  I am guessing this is probably a male, since nature usually favors more subdued, camouflaging colors on females for the safety of the species, and he seemed to be on a mission.  I picked him up and found him a nice spot under my blueberry bushes in the back yard.

Then on Sunday my husband found him heading to the other neighbor's yard under the fence, and moved him back to a "better" place.  However, yesterday that neighbor had the fence torn down between our yards to replace it, so now there is no fence, their fence builders are committing "crape murder" (cutting the crape myrtles down to nubs -- which at this late date probably means no blooms this year) and otherwise demolishing their landscaping.  I hope this turtle with a mission to head north manages to avoid the generalized mayhem and destruction over there, as well as their swimming pool!

Linked to Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage; Show Off Your Cottage at The House in the Roses; Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life

Possumhaw

Remember that fabulous full moon last week?  The Wolf Moon -- or in the Choctaw/Chickasaw languages of the Mississippi River valley lands -- Neshoba Moon (Neshoba or Nashoba meaning "wolf"). It was so incredibly bright, shining through the January bare branches of the trees in our front yard.  If you saw the moon last week, you know this picture doesn't begin to do it justice.  See the tree with the red berries on the left?  That is my favorite tree in the winter time -- a possum haw, they call it here.

Ilex decidua.  A deciduous holly.  Haw is an old-timey word for fruit, so I guess possums may be fond of it.

I love how the red berries stand out against the bark and the green of the pines and cedars.

It's especially striking when there is snow.  I bought this tree at a native plant sale and planted it when it was a 24 inch baby.  Over the years I worried that it might need a pollinator (like many hollies) or that I had bought a male tree (did you know that some tree species have separate male and female trees?  Hollies, and Gingkos), because it did not set any fruit for many years.  This year is the heaviest berry set I have had on it.

I've noticed this winter that the trees and shrubs have held on to their berries very late in the season.  Usually by mid January the birds, squirrels, raccoons and possums have left the branches very bare.  I haven't had as many birds at my feeders this winter either.  I wonder if it is due to our cats (although there have always been cats in the neighborhood, and this is the third winter Ophelia and Belle have lived at our house).  Santa brought the cats very elegant sparkly collars with bells this Christmas, but the collar was seriously irritating Ophelia's throat so we removed hers.

elderberries

elderberry grove

When I was an anthropology undergraduate student one of my professors always liked to point out to us that this part of the country (the southeast, and most particularly the midsouth) had/has the most biodiversity in both plants and animals of the land of the United States.  The indigenous culture here (Mississippian Culture mound builders) built temple mounds second only to those in Mexico in height, and the temple complex/cities, including Chuckalissa here in the Memphis area and Pinson in the Jackson, TN area, and of course Cahokia further north on the Mississippi, were home to populations larger than most European cities at the time.  The Mound Building people farmed extensively, had trade routes extending to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and population centers in the southwest, and harvested the bounty that our woods and fields here continue to offer:  nuts, blackberries, muscadines, passion fruit, pawpaws, jerusalem artichokes, acorns, persimmons, elderberries, and more.  I grew up picking these free offerings in the woods and along the roads around here and in the "mother earth"days of the 1970's while I was in college, learned to can and make fruit leathers to preserve the free harvest (adding in crabapples, which a lot of subdivision home owners planted as ornamental trees).

elderberry flower head

Those woods and fields and country roads with dirt paths along side are pretty much gone now from my suburban town, but I try to maintain a bit of the feeling in my own yard.  These are pictures from my back of the driveway elderberry grove.  It's thriving, with plants towering above the back fence.  In June and July there were huge heads of almost hydrangia like blooms.

setting fruit

In August the bloom give way to 8 inch in diameter umbrellas of ripening berries.  Usually the ripe berries only stay on the bush a moment before being eaten up by birds, but this year I have been able to harvest a lot myself.  I don't know if it's because there is more fruit set than the wildlife can eat this year or if the wildlife is feasting better elsewhere (like on my figs and tomatoes, which I find pecked, picked, and littered around the back yard!).

the ripened fruit

Thank goodness for being able to plunk berries into freezer bags and into the freezer, to wait for cooler days to transform them into jam or syrup.  A mere 50-60 years ago women would have been sweating over enormous kettles of boiling fruits and vegetables, steaming cauldrons of water to immerse the jars containing the garden harvest, without the relief of the air conditioning that we now retreat to recover from a trip to the mailbox!

Linked to Tuesday Garden Party

It all started with the screen door

It all started with the screen door to our screen porch.  We keep it propped open so that our two garden cats, Ophelia and Belle, can come in out of the hot sun and get a drink of water from the bowl we have in the screen porch.  The porch encompasses the breezeway between the garage and the house and then wraps around the back of the house, where there is another screen door leading to the backyard, so the only way to get to our back door is through the screen porch.

Upon occasion at night we have surprised a racoon peering into the screen porch, and once I found a box turtle strolling through, and we knew a possum had been making rounds.

I noticed when I took Trixie Lou out the back door during the day she was showing a lot of interest in a small chest of drawers in the porch.  So the other day I pulled open a drawer, expecting to see mouse or rat droppings amongst the peat pots and cloth strips for the May Pole that I keep there.  I briefly saw a snarling mouth of razor sharp teeth before I slammed the drawer shut and ran into the house!  Later that night when my husband came home we ventured forth to flush out the vicious creature, carefully opening the drawer.

Amongst cries of "It's so adorable!" from the girls, and "Don't hurt it!" we tried to get it to leave.  It wouldn't budge.

 Finally a friend came over with her daughter, an airsoft gun, and two intrepid dogs (Trixie Lou, being only a little over a year, was not likely to fair well in a fight with that possum's sharp teeth.  The airsoft gun did not seem to disturb it at all.  Finally some prodding with a hoe handle and the presence of the two dogs motivated it to jump out of the drawer.  After a period of slapstick running and chasing on the part of all the people and dogs (one of which was a huge Anatolian Shepherd), the possum decided to play possum.  Rolling over, with mouth open in a snarling grimace displaying the wicked teeth.  A possum, hissing and snarling, with teeth and claws ready for fight resembles a Tasmanian Devil in some respects -- this is no cute docile small mammal!  Husband then shoveled it up and deposited it in a corner of the yard, from which it later fled.  Hopefully the screen porch has enough dog scent now to  discourage taking up residence, if not visits.

it was dark by now

Of course now the porch is in even greater disarray than it has been, with every drawer pulled out of the chest, all furniture pulled away from the walls, shoes, pots, garden tools strewn every which way from our trying to flush out and stay away from the possum!