poeticpeony's Blog
poeticpeony's Blog
Last Post 41 days, 18 hours Ago
May 28, 2008 | 6:25 AM PST
Yup, first I saw one little one and then two little ones and then a reallllllly big one! And they all ran rfom different directions to the same place under my barn. Here we go again. I see a big one way out back and I'm wondering if that's pop since it doesn't come up to the barn, but stays back in the wooded area. The cat likes to watch them from inside. They are cute as long as they stay out from under my porches!!! I've been putting some hot pepper mix around the porches because it says they don't like the smell. It smells pretty cool when I hit the thyme and smell the pepper. Makes me hungry though.
Jul 24, 2007 | 4:46 AM PST
I finished reading "Night Gardening" by EW Swann this drizzly morning and stood looking out my bedroom window for a time looking at my lilies out back and thinking how I could rearrange. Then I thought about putting a veggie garden between the house and barn. I'd thought about that before. I looked up at the maples that are about 80 feet tall on the north and south sides of the barn and realized that they'd probably shade it too much eventually. The line "jester among giants" popped into my head. Guess who's the jester and who's the giants? lol And yeah, I refer to Yertle the Turtle if anyone questions that part. :)
"The Jester Among Giants"
Deepset anguish inwardly embraced
Unparched eyes revel victoriously
Contemplation of self-condemnation
Wondering where it all went wrong
Leeched thoughts abstractly shaped
Not aware what form they'll take
Longing to see things in black and white
But their aversion to me is evident
Explosions of solitary colors
Yet uniqueness is in each frame
Maybe I should add myself to their greenery
And explode my leaves with them
Top turtle in my field and ruler of all I look down upon
Eyeing the kingdom and planning it's future
When my own is so mismanaged
Creative chaos
High above and broad as can be
Shadowing plans of new pursuits
They force me into a pigeon-hole
Without a word
One on each side
And I see what I am as their arms stretch passively
For a time before their sudden explosion and rest
I realize I'm the jester among giants
BJH 7/24/2007
Jun 26, 2007 | 5:50 AM PST
I'm really pleasantly befuddled. My columbine and peonies are still blooming although not as much as at the beginning of their seasons. I don't remember them ever blooming this long. It must be the lack of rain beating them all down. My bee balm looks incredibly better than last year, too. The buds are just starting to form. I've got lots of baby hostas which I'm thrilled to see since I had nothing to do with their growth. Great little surprises.
The poison ivy killer did it's job up the tree out back and didn't kill any blackberries around it. (sigh of relief) I have to check the wild strawberries today and try to beat the bunny at getting them!
And so far I haven't seen any baby groundhogs this year. Maybe the neighbors' garden will get a break.
Okay, this is a few days later, but I have to add this. I was on GG last night way too late, but it was such fun. About an hour after I got up this morning I remembered a dream I had. I think the combination of a young pin oak tree in my yard I've been contemplating about and Paul James' and RK's talk about bonsai made me, FORCED ME to dream about bonsai-ing a lemon tree at least 7 feet tall. I don't know why a lemon tree, but I know that's what it was because there were lemons growing on it. By the time I was done it was about 2 feet tall and had wire wrapped around certain branches to train them. (I saw that on Paul James'. Sunday morning )
May 24, 2007 | 12:17 PM PST
I've got a nicely grown hosta plant I got from a cutting from a place I worked. Next to it this year for the first time there's about 7 or 8 leaves popped up as new plants. The leaves are all solid green, but what I liked about the flowers is their darker lavender color. Thanks Mother Nature.
Beside those is some pachysandra. When I was showing my hubby the hostas I commented I'd like to do cuttings of the pachys for around another tree. He floored me when he told me how to do it. He said when he worked in a nursery when he was growing up they did pachy cuttings. And you think you know someone after 30 years.........
May 19, 2007 | 11:37 AM PST
My eldest son likes that phrase for some reason. But my purple irises are starting to bud and my purple columbine are blooming here and there, too. The perenniel geranium I planted at mom's a year or so ago is getting flowers on it so there's some lavender coloring happening. And the chives are flowering.
It seems I go through a wave of yellow and then purple. Then it'a all this and that.
Pruning wild roses and blackberries was loads of fun yesterday. There's a big thornless rose that wasn't bad and I decided to save some of the branches to weave something out of them. I don't know what yet, but I've got 'em! (I do that a lot.) I also think I figured out how to tell the blackberries from the roses. The roses are round stemmed and the blackberries are squarish. They also have a lot longer thorns that are a lot closer together. I should have taken my welding gloves to do those, but I just used regular ones. I got an owie or 2.
May 4, 2007 | 1:16 PM PST
I've got a couple leaves up on either a misplaced weed or a Jacob's Ladder in one of my winter sow jugs. I'm psyched now. They're staying outdoors now as the temp is in the 50's and 60's now, but I cover them at night.
Barn paint test came up negative for lead. That was good.
My painted fern I bought last year in pretty sorry condition is starting to unfurl. I've never had one before, but SIL has some and they were pretty.
I got a caramel leaved coral bell today. I love the leaf color. I'm torn as to where to put it. Maybe I should have gotten 2! lol Wish I'd thought of that.
Apr 28, 2007 | 9:23 AM PST
I thought it was amusing when I looked out my bedroom window and saw the groundhog rom the barn sniffing my son's truck tailpipe intently for about 5 minutes. I thought it odd when it went over to my streetlight in the yard and stood up against it like it was going to start climbing it. I don't know what the heck it was doing there. But when I glanced out my kitchen window while doing dishes and saw it munching through my astilbe and primrose I dried my hands, pulled on my tall rubber boots, and grabbed the animal repellent. It ran for the barn when i scolded it as I went out the door. I sprinkled all through the flowerbed and a few scattered small ones til it was gone. I'll see if it works. It didn't look like it ate any of my flowering plants, but just some of the grasses around there, but it'll learn what's my territory and where it can eat. It's still cute, but we'll see how cute!
Apr 24, 2007 | 7:26 PM PST
I found some mystery plants that I think might be asiatic lilies, but I guess I'll find out when they get bigger. They weren't there 2 days ago. My hostas are popping up all over the place and 2 pink trillium are up although only one has a bud so far. The other usual odds and ends are popped up.
Blooming now- Double and single daffodils and pheasant eye narcisuss that are both older than I am, grape hyacinths, primrose (yellows and reds), johnny-jump-ups, quince -just starting, forsythia ( I think the flowers got frost damaged as they have brown on them ), white violets.
My mother's yellow primrose are thick and taller than mine and they're from MY PLANTS! Oh well, they're pretty and I can see them from my house, too.
Apr 22, 2007 | 1:50 PM PST
I found a clean milk jug when I was cleaning my back porch so I just had to start some more seeds in there. Jacob's Ladder this time. I had one several years ago and somehow I killed it so I'm in hopes I get a couple at least.
I was strolling past my big flowerbed and was pointing something out to my son when I looked by my feet and found a bright patch of red primrose screaming for me to not step on them. I almost did that's why I think I looked down. Pretty little faces there for sure. I think I should put a couple out front by my yellow johnny-jump-ups. They'll make a nice combo and be where hubby won't mow them down, too.
Another outdoor project we may undertake this year is to paint the barn. My dad and grandpa covered 3 sides with fiberglass panels years ago, but they never did the front. I'm not sure if it was because of illnesses or something else because there's still panels left, but since the barn is almost 100 years old I'm doing the test on the paint for lead. I've tested other parts of the house and have been very lucky that I haven't found any so far. I hope I'm lucky with the barn, too. The test will be complete tomorrow.
Apr 20, 2007 | 11:06 AM PST
Yesterday I stuck some red oak leaf lettuce seeds in a cut milk jug ala wintersow method even though it's spring now. I'm just experimenting to see if I can do it right. At least blogging should make it easy to find what I'm doing! Maybe I should blog everything. Don't worry. I won't.
