witt's Blog

Energy
May 31, 2012 | 5:10 AM PST
I don't know where all my energy came from yesterday. As soon as I finished two loads of clothes and got all the morning chores done, I hit the Back Forty. (I'm waiting on the linens to dry right now so that I can fold them up and get outside!) I've been pulling out the spent showy pink primroses in that big bed. They were a mess. It must not have been as hot or maybe not as humid as the day before. I got what they used to call "a monkey on my back." I had to quit and sit in the shade, but yesterday was gorgeous. I didn't seem to have to stop at all. I even pulled a bunch of weeds out of the defunct Biddy Barn. That's the huge area behind the Back Forty where one of the chicken pens used to be. Now it has 3 redbud trees, a damson plum, two large angel trumpets, two pink flowering almonds, and a forsythia. The ivy on the edge of the Back Forty was running away. What fun that was to pull! It was like the fruit at the bottom of the bowl. I just couldn't stop. I even pulled weeds in that neglected area beside the walkway to the shed. It was getting late, so I thought that I'd just sit and admire, but the next thing I knew I was picking up fallen mimosa blossoms. The lawn was covered with them and looked terrible! I sat again but not for long. I then started deadheading. One of the marigolds in the Rock Garden wasn't doing a thing, so dagnabit, I dug it up and put it in a pot. That caused the great pot shift. I moved some pots around. Well, evidently I still wasn't done. I dug up some of Aunt Winnie's moss. (I forgot the real name.) I put it in an old pot that sits on the edge of the woods. Not done yet -- I took cuttings from all my different coleus plants. I have two unique ones. I got a cutting of the hybrid variegated double impatiens. I sure would love to get a potload of those! Then I walked down the driveway and checked the coon trap. Nothing. We've got a coon that walks around in the daytime, and I know that's NOT a good thing! I hope to get back outside soon because it is supposed to really be hot today. Mission for Today: Get back out to the Biddy Barn and finish pulling all the weeds.I hope I still have some energy.

Call of the Wild
May 5, 2012 | 5:04 AM PST

I tried to get out early yesterday morning to get things done before the rain. Ha. No rain. I piddled around tidying things, transplanting here and there. It seemed that no matter where I went in the yard that I discovered ants -- regular ants, #@!$ ants, fire ants, forest ants. I guess this will be the year of the ants.

Son was beside the Patio Garden talking on the phone yesterday when a king snake went right past him. It scared him, but at least he didn't go on an attack. I'm trying to teach Hubby and Son to leave my good snakes alone! They help to keep the toady-frog population down!! Since the toadies won't stop tunneling around in my beds, I've decided to use more pots this year. Besides, they are calling for a dry summer and it will be easier to hand-water pots, than try to water twenty-two flower beds.

Here's the view in the backyard around Aunt Winnie's Garden and the Rock Garden. The pots have the old-timey begonia, vincas, marigolds, portulaca, rootings of plectranthus, echevaria, and a few others. Beside the red pot on the right is a dwarf coreopsis. I don't know how long I can keep it in that pot, but I'll keep it there as long as it thrives.

 

 

 

I hope to get outside in the yard again today now that I've got some new potting soil to play with. I found a few zinnias coming up in the driveway. Wouldn't you know it. They never come up in the bed where you want them!

This morning Hubby was looking out the front window and asked me what I thought this was. I looked and it was a fox. He was just sitting, looking around. Then he spotted something. We looked over to the edge of the woods and there was someone's kitty. It just looked back. Then it squatted down, tucked its little feet underneath itself and sat there. The fox came to it, looked the cat over and left it alone. The fox went about its business. We watched as the fox went down the driveway and back up, over to the hollow, back to the driveway. I kept looking and saw the fox again over by the hollow, running. Then a bunny shot out of the woods. The fox didn't pursue. Ah, life in the wild.

Mission for today: Transplant zinnias, enjoy the birds, and keep an eye out for a sly fox.