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Post by Phalon on Apr 19, 2008 4:39:43 GMT -6
It happens every year, yet it always amazes me - we have a few warm days and everything bursts back to life; it seems to happen overnight.
Forsythias and star magnolias are blooming now. The bare ground that I got down on my knees to inspect closely on Wednesday is now sprouting neat rows of tiny mustard green and spinach seedlings. There are a few nice shoots of asparagus coming up - I hope the bunnies don't get them!
But it's the daffodils that are most noticable to me. Nothing screams spring more than the sweet scent of sunny-yellow that I've got blooming all over the yard. Ruffled double ones, pale creamy buttery colored ones, and bright canary-yellows. We've got a big vase filled with them in the kitchen, and the bouquet keeps growing; BP can not walk by a clump without pulling a few more.
It's supposed to be another nice day here....hope it's the same in ya'll's neck of the world.
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Post by katina2nd on Apr 19, 2008 21:57:20 GMT -6
It's supposed to be another nice day here....hope it's the same in ya'll's neck of the world. If I could bottle today's weather and have it 365 days of the year I'd be a happy man, absolutely perfect. Just got back from a long leisurely walk along the river bank and boy was it busy, looked more like main street on a Saturday night.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 20, 2008 6:46:26 GMT -6
Oh, a nice leisurely walk on a beautiful spri.....autumn-in-your-neck-of-the-world (yes?) sounds wonderful, Katina. I did a ton of walking yesterday. And boy, was it busy where I was walking, but the pace was anything but leisurely. The nice weather brought out customers in droves yesterday.
Same nice weather again today, and since it's my day off, hopefully I can enjoy it in a more leisurely fashion.
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Post by Zena on Apr 20, 2008 17:45:50 GMT -6
Hello Whooshites, it has been forever since I wrote here. I am Zena, she who began the Zena Scrolls long long ago!! It is lovely to see some of my old traveling companions are still about.
Last night the temperature here was in the 80's and so a friend and I strolled through our village. Not a bud or twig was moving and there was a strange sense of the sacred in the air. The birds that I missed so much in the winter murmured sleepy twitters as they settled in for the night. We weren't ready to roost like the birds and so we sat on a bench in front of a little wooden church across from the elementary school until the street lights blinked into life. Thousands of children have bounced up the old stone steps of that school and then streaked back out to join a weary world. The ground smelled of new shoots and old leaves and I thought how grand it would be if you could keep these moments in your pocket for later use when life is not quite so magical.
I hope everyone had a day to savor.
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 20, 2008 18:20:13 GMT -6
Welcome back Zena.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 21, 2008 4:13:36 GMT -6
Zena! <smile> It's great to see a post from you.....and such a lovely one too.
I agree; it'd be wonderful to have moments tucked away that we could relive by simply pulling one out of our pockets....instead of coming up with a handful of lint.
It reminds me of that song...
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, Never let it fade away. Catch a falling star an put it in your pocket, Save it for a rainy day.
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Post by Siren on Apr 21, 2008 21:20:04 GMT -6
Indeed, Zena, it's good to see you. Don't be a stranger! Glad to read that so many here are seeing fair weather. We have had a string of sunny, warm days, today the warmest, muggiest so far this season - well into the 80s. I turned on the air conditioner a few minutes ago, believe it or not. I hate to do that, knowing this warm weather is nothing compared to what we'll have this summer. Yes, Gams, our spring has sprung in a big way - the grass is greening up nicely, my roses, as I said, are thriving, though not blooming yet, and my snapdragons are just gorgeous. I will try and take a photo of the snapdragons this week, so you can see them. I helped my folks plant tomatoes and peppers yesterday. My mom harvested a few green onions to go with her dinner. And I saw the neatest thing - a rabbit nest in my mom's back flowerbed. My mom uncovered it while cleaning out some dead leaves. When she pulled on a clump, she realized it was a cover for the rabbits' den, almost like a solid cap the mom created with a mat of grass and weeds. Underneath was a layer of fur the mom had pulled from her own body to insulate her babies, above and below. And what tiny babies! They're probably about 2 1/2 inches long, with not much hair, and tiny ears. We only touched the nest with a hoe, very gently, and didn't completely uncover them for a good look, for fear it would scare the mama away. But that was a first for me. I'd never seen a rabbit nest before, or babies that little. We also saw the first toad of the season (oh, joy!!), and saw a nice-sized tree frog clinging to the cottonwood. Unfortunately, the toad got away before I could give him my customary squeeze and kiss. But it's early yet.
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Post by Zena on Apr 26, 2008 14:34:12 GMT -6
Hi Siren, Phalon and of course Joxie! Each year I have a mother rabbit who has her babies in my garden. The soil is soft and easy to make a nest. At twilight she seems very active and the cat races from window to window to get a good look. Don't you wonder what they are thinking when they look at you? "RABBIT! RABBIT! Can't you see it? What is wrong with you??? Run with me to the next window!!! People are SO stupid! Not like cats." Spring passes by so quickly, the delicate fabric of her gown brushes our cheeks with a warm breeze and then she gives way to summer sweat. Stay cool folks!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 27, 2008 7:51:21 GMT -6
Stay cool? No problem doing that here, Zena. After one freakishly-warm-for-April day at nearly eighty degrees Friday, the temperature plummeted down into the forties in just about an hour, and yesterday we were back to the cold, wet, windy weather that is our spring. The forecasters were wrong about last night though; we didn't get the heavy frost they predicted, and this morning is sunny and bright. I hope they've got Monday's forecast wrong too - they are saying "snow".
Last year I found a nest in the children's garden at work, just in the way Siren described her mom finding her bunnies. Under a pile of leaves were the cutest little balls of fur. Rabbits though, are a pain in the behind at work. They not only find the nursery a smorgasbord of all sorts of things to nibble on, but they create havoc in the irrigation system for our trees. I didn't know this before working there, but a rabbit's teeth never stop growing, (remember the fanged rabbit Gabrielle fought in In Sickness and In Hell? I think he may have needed to chew some roughage.) When the overhead irrigation for the larger trees doesn't supply enough water, drip lines are run into each pot. The rabbits find the hard plastic tubing perfect to wear their ever-growing teeth down, and chew through them daily. Replacing the lines is time consuming, and getting shot in the face with a heavy stream of water coming from a cut line when turning on the lines is a shock first thing in the morning. Never-mind the coffee - getting drenched unexpectedly is enough of a jolt to wake anyone!
Rabbits, deer, (I saw three beautiful does the other day at work), and groundhogs are all very destructive creatures at the nursery, and we constantly are battling them, (in non-aggressive ways). At home, it's the squirrels that I battle - they are into everything in the garden, and have nearly driven me insane, (I'd say they drive me nuts, but that is too bad a pun even for me). I gotta admit though, they are entertaining to watch.
I just finished drinking a cup of coffee on the front porch, and nearly laughed out loud watching a squirrel's antics. We have a hollow maple out front that over the years has been home to countless birds nests, squirrels, and once at dusk I even saw a momma raccoon and her three little ones pop out of the hole in its trunk. This year the tree's inhabitant is a squirrel, and she has been busy making her nest.
This always makes me laugh - they don't seem to be very efficient nest builders, chewing off branches to line the nest much to large for them to carry, and the ground around our five maples are always littered with their misjudgments. Chew off more than they can handle, it drops to the ground, and they just chew off another branch.
Mrs. Squirrel this morning was no exception - she kept dropping the branches she'd worked to get. Finally, she gnawed off one she could handle, and carried it down trunk to the hole in the tree. But it was to long to fit - no matter how hard she tried, the branch wasn't going into that hole. Definitely a tenacious little thing, finally she hurled herself with all her squirrelly might through the hole, causing the branch to break at either end......at last she was inside with a no-longer-than-six-inch stick that was two feet shorter than what she started out with.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 29, 2008 5:40:20 GMT -6
We didn't get the snow that was in the forecast, thank goodness. The temperatures have been dipping down to the freezing mark during the nights though.
The dogwoods are just starting to bloom; magnolias, ornamental cherries and pears are at their peak. Amelanchiers - my favorite - with their oh-so-delicate white flowers are blooming. I see them in the woods; wispy flashes of white as I'm driving past. Little lime-green leaves are opening on everything. Despite the cold, everything is colored spring.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on Apr 29, 2008 6:49:31 GMT -6
Everything is just coloured damn rainy at the moment.. HEHE.
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Post by Zena on Apr 29, 2008 18:08:21 GMT -6
It's happened twice now. I race home, change my clothes, put on my garden gloves and start poking about in the garden when...the temperature drops and it rains. So, I go in and press my nose against the glass until dark. Ah well, this too shall pass.
Phalon, there is a squirrel who lives somewhere near us who likes to climb up the tree by my hall window. He or she sits there in the fork of the tree at eye level with my cat who sits in the window. The cat makes all sorts of squeaks and catswearing noises but the squirrel just sits and stares in the window. It must be a delicious moment for a squirrel!
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 29, 2008 19:15:59 GMT -6
What I hate about storm season is when thunder rolls in and out. I'll turn off the computer and unplug everything and all goes quiet. I hook everything back up and get online and it goes noisy again, so I unplug the computer and all goes quiet. Back and forth. Unplug and plug ... unplug and plug. grrrr. Drives me nuts.
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Post by Phalon on May 1, 2008 4:02:39 GMT -6
LOL, Zena. My cats make the same squeaking and cat swearing noises at the birds and squirrels. It's the neighbor's bunnies though, that really get them going. We've got a window-seat that is a favorite cat hang-out, and the window faces the rabbit hutch. Every once in a while one of the rabbits will trip the latch and hop out of the hutch. The yakking that comes from my cats is a clue that it's time to alert the neighbors that their bunnies have escaped again.
You are good, Joxie. I never unplug anything during storms. I was under the assumption that the surge-protectors would protect my computer from..uhm...surges. A couple weeks ago, I'd just turned on the computer, when BOOM! A peal of thunder and a flash of lightning let loose; the computer and television turned off. Weird, but the lights didn't even flicker. When I turned my computer back on, (the T.V. came on by itself a few seconds later), I had no Internet connection. I had to call my Internet Provider Guys the next day and have them walk me through resetting everything.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 1, 2008 17:00:07 GMT -6
Surge protectors can't protect against the wattages that lightning has, and that's why I unplug during thunderstorms.
wvlightning.com/lmwn5.shtml
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Post by Phalon on May 3, 2008 4:42:24 GMT -6
Thanks for the link, Joxie. Unplugging electrical appliances and such during a storm was one of those things I knew was good practice, but something I've never done. Either too much hassle, (how difficult can it be or how much time does it really take? Too much hassle, I think, translates to laziness on my part), or something I forget about doing when the storms start.
We had to unplug everything at work yesterday - a wicked storm rolled in dumping buckets of rain and hail in a matter of minutes. Then it cleared, and seemed almost balmy outside - no jacket weather. Some weird flip-flop changes here this past week. The other night we got a heavy freeze; it was 22 degrees when I woke up Wednesday morning. We didn't get much damage here, but at the nursery a lot of things got hit hard: some of the perennials just starting to look nice, and the magnolia buds that hadn't opened yet turned to mush; new hydrangea leaves fried; the cute little lime-green new growth on the evergreens are now sandy-brown; and the rhododendron flowers that were just starting to open are brown too. The asparagus starts that were looking so yummy now look like Mom's cooked vegetables: overdone gray-green cooked 'til there's no life left in it mush.
Yesterday evening I finally got around to doing something in my own yard - that favorite chore of mine, and the first time of the year that it gets done is like a sacred ritual that I savor; the task I make sure mine alone, (Hubs was planning on doing it today while I'm at work; I beat him to it). I cut the grass. Oh, the sweet smell of freshly cut grass mixed with the scent of all the tiny violets that I almost hated to mow down. Savor it now while it's still green, and not the inevitable brown it'll turn in the heat of summer when we are in desperate need of rain.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 3, 2008 19:14:26 GMT -6
I don't unplug anything else. Losing my TV and VCR the other night proves that fact. The computer, however, holds folders of info I don't want to lose. I do have backups, but who's to say something doesn't go wrong and they get screwed up too? Yeah, okay, my glass is half empty. And also, my computer is my only access to the internet. I'd have to get it replaced before I could get back online again. I'd go through withdrawals! So, I go the extra mile and get offline during lightning and unplug it all as well. I'm sure that the chances of the computer getting struck is the same as all the other stuff in my house, but I'm just more protective.
A few years ago, I lost a DVD player and the dog's electric water dish to lightning. The freezing weather was almost over with anyway, so the dog just had to put up with her water turning to ice for a week or so. Before that, I don't recall losing anything to lightning. Nothing since I've been on my own.
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Post by Phalon on May 4, 2008 21:02:45 GMT -6
I haven't lost anything either during lightning strikes.....although I have zapped a couple of cordless phones into non-working oblivion due to static electricity emitting from my highly charged self when answering the phones. Other than that - nothing, which probably accounts for my I-don't-even-think-about-it attitude when it comes to unplugging things. Especially the computer, and shoot, I'd be in a fix if I lost that. Too many files not backed up, and what is backed up is on floppy disk. I don't even think you can buy a computer that has a floppy disk cup-holder attachment anymore? Hubs' laptop doesn't have one, so my next step is to tranfer stuff to one of those memory-stick-thingies that stick into the USB port. Sigh. I am so technically challenged and behind-the-times.
Going to the other extreme, my boss unplugs everything, from the coffee pot, to the credit card machine. Burned once, she will not let it happen again. I hope I don't have to learn the lesson in the same hard way she did. I just need to remember to do it.....without a shocking jolt reminding me.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 5, 2008 3:15:01 GMT -6
Hehe... I have "shocked" myself many times... Not so good.
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Post by Siren on May 5, 2008 8:27:28 GMT -6
Hehe... I have "shocked" myself many times... Not so good. lmv, I'm not "shocked" by that at all. ;P
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Post by Phalon on May 7, 2008 6:27:46 GMT -6
Neither am I, Chere - especially after reading in the quote thread you got zapped, (how do you feel "current"ly?). Must be your electric personality that's got you to shocking yourself.
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Post by Phalon on May 9, 2008 6:00:34 GMT -6
I've been entertained the last few mornings watching the cardinals. Mrs. Cardinal sits on a branch as Mr. Cardinal flies to the feeder, grabs a sunflower seed, and flies back to the Mrs. and feeds it to her. Over and over he does this until she's had her fill, and they fly away together.
I told my boss, an avid bird-watcher, about this behavior yesterday. The cardinals at her feeder, she said, do the same....but they "go dutch", taking turns feeding each other. I've seen adult birds feed their young, but have never seen adults feed each other. It's very sweet to watch.
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Post by Siren on May 12, 2008 20:50:14 GMT -6
Very sweet behavior, indeed. It's interesting that he feeds her even when she's not nesting. My mom says that her mom, my granny, raised canaries to sell back in the day. She cut off the bottom of a oatmeal carton for a nesting box for her bird, and lined it with cotton. The mother would sit on her eggs, and wait to be fed by her mate. He would roost below the nesting box, out of his mate's sight. But when she got tired of waiting to be fed, my mom says the female bird would stand on the edge of her nest and look for the male, an angry gleam in her eye. When she spotted him, she would fly down and beat him up, then return to the nest. Mama says the he-bird would then get back to his job of feeding her.
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Post by Phalon on May 13, 2008 5:50:28 GMT -6
I did a two-minute drill on cardinals, Siren, and found that the male cardinal feeding the female is part of their mating ritual; he even cracks the seeds for her. I didn't read anywhere though, that this a two-way street like the cardinals at my bosses' feeder. Maybe they are a bird couple with a more modern attitude.
And your grandma's canary couple? They remind me for some reason of the Fred and Ethel Mertz of the bird world!
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Post by Phalon on May 14, 2008 5:56:16 GMT -6
It's raining this morning, and it's supposed to continue to do so all day. Weather is a big topic with the customers at work; they make their purchases and like to talk about what is the best time to get them in the ground - some prefer to plant on a bright, sunny day; others like an overcast, wet day.
A customer asked me yesterday if it was supposed to rain. I told him I could guarantee rain on Wednesday - it's my day off and it's rained every day I've had off work in the last month.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on May 16, 2008 0:10:59 GMT -6
Officially a million degrees and rising....*sigh
Anyone want to let me couch surf for the summer?
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Post by Phalon on May 18, 2008 22:36:44 GMT -6
You can escape the desert heat, and enjoy our cooler temperatures here, Scrappy. Sound like a plan? Sound divan? Sofa, so good, huh? HA! No couch surfing - waves don't roll into the davenport big enough to surf, and there's yard work to be done.
I did just a bit of it today - a little weeding, a little planting, some mowing, and some moving of boulders. I picked some baby spinach leaves, and tender mustard greens for a salad, and watched the birds - three grosbeaks at the feeder, a pair of very noisy blue-jays that have taken up residence somewhere in the yard, and a cute wren couple, equally as noisy, but in a less obtrusive way.
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Post by Phalon on May 19, 2008 21:37:57 GMT -6
What fresh squirrel hell is this?! Grrrrr. The little plants I planted yesterday were all dug up this morning. I noticed them while I was sitting on the porch, drinking my coffee, and got right to replanting them....while I was still in my pajamas. <shrugs> I'm sure the neighbors have seen stranger things.
Satisfied the little babies were safely tucked in, I left for work, only to return this evening to find them strewn about again; one poor guy sprawled on the front walk, gasping for water.
They're back in their bed now, and hopefully will stay put.
Damned squirrels. Oh, and Molezilla has returned too, I noticed. I think I'm outnumbered.
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Post by Siren on May 20, 2008 21:38:08 GMT -6
Maybe put some chicken wire over the baby plants till the squirrels find a different target, Gams? My sympathies. My friend David hates squirrels, calls them "furry-tailed rats".
My roses have developed some sort of blight - yellow leaves and black spots. And they were so pretty! That's what I get for bragging about them. I doctored them well today, and hope that does the trick.
Meanwhile, my aloe vera is ecstatic about being repotted, and is having babies like crazy. My airplane plant is putting on babies, too. My arrowleaf, back in its favorite spot in the shaded corner of my porch, is a picture of content, putting on new leaves with abandon. The waxy begonia babies my mom potted for me have recovered from the shock, and are looking good; one has many new blossoms. And the angel wing begonia is getting back on its feet after my mom broke it back. I want to find a long container to hold a couple of petunias, and put it on one of the garden benches my dad made for me. I just love those benches. I am so glad he made them for me.
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Post by Phalon on May 26, 2008 7:32:14 GMT -6
So is this it? Time to drag up the summer thread? Though summer is officially still a few weeks away, do you all, (excepting Katina and Moonglum), consider Memorial Day the start of summer? When we were kids, summer officially started the day school let out; two weeks left for the girls, and they can't wait.
It certainly doesn't feel like summer. It's been too cold. We had friends over for a bon-fire Saturday night; I wore a wool sweater, and Xena-Sista wore gloves.
We reached into the seventies yesterday though...but highs back down to the fifties predicted for much of this week. I've been dragging my annuals in and out of the garage based on the temperatures for the past couple of weeks; I would have waited to get them for fear of frost, but some of those pretties would have been sold-out after this weekend, (lots of non-stop begonias, Siren, in my favorite wild colors - tangerine orange, and hot-pink). Memorial Day here is considered the "safe" time to plant annuals and vegetables. And OMG, it showed at the nursery this past weekend! I've seen both parking lots filled to capacity; many times there have been cars parked along the side of the road when the parking lots were full. But I've never seen anything like yesterday. Both lots filled, both sides of the road lined up and down with vehicles, cars in the bosses' yard next door, and cars parked where I never thought cars could park.
And the stuff we packed into these cars! LMAO. One woman bought two huge five foot tall and wide burning bushes, a four foot tall viburnum, a three foot yew, and six one-gallon perennials. And then I looked at her car, which she was driving back to Chicago where the stuff will be planted. My jaw dropped in disbelief. A Toyota Camry. We twined it up, and got it all in; I hope she can get it out!
It's bright and sunny today, and I wonder if we'll be as busy? I guess I'll find out in a few - I'm off to work now. Holiday today, and we're only open six hours. Beat after yesterday, the break is needed.
Later, Sweet Taters. Enjoy.
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