Spring at Last!!

Nice surprise to find these crocus blooming in my front yard yesterday. Warm (53) and sunny, and I did a little cleaning up in the yard and flower beds. Another warmer day today, March. 8th. Good day to go for a long walk, take the camera, and see what I can find. It's a fun and safe way to pick the neighbors' flowers. ;^)

This is the same little cluster of bulbs that I posted a picture of on March 5th, last year. Twice as many blooms this year.

Have a great day!!

Spring soon, but not yet....

Sixty-three today, and the last of that round of snow is gone, except in a few piles, or in shady places. Forecast is for another round of off-and-on snow this week, and temps of 20 to 40.

Meanwhile, all the spring bulbs are pushing up. I'm looking forward to all those flowers! And the end of winter.

(Oops, I've got the wrong date on the photo. It was taken today, 2/21)

Snowy February

I'm ready for spring! However, since I don't have to be working outside, or commuting, the weather is more bothersome to the cat, than to me. She's getting cabin fever, I think.

We've been very lucky here, this winter. The major storms that have hit the eastern states have just about all bypassed us, in this part of Kentucky. This is the most snow we have had at anytime. And I suppose there may be about 5 inches now. We often get more "winter" in February than in January.

I don't mind staying in and sewing, reading, watch a movie, and just goof off. Oh, I forgot to mention, eating. I seem to do all those things in equal proportions. Hehe!

Hope you all had a happy Valentines Day!

Winter blooms...

This amaryllis was a gift for Christmas, three years ago, so this is it's fourth blooming. Just as lovely as before, the blooms measure almost 8 inches across. I set it ourside for a while, after the weather warms, and give it a dormant period in the fall. Tucked away in corner, it wakes up right on schedule in late December.

Warm, 50* or more today, great day to be outdoors, or take a walk. We had some rain yesterday. Typical, changable January-in-Kentucky weather.

Snow in the Bluegrass area...

It's been quite a while since my last posting here. We have 3 or 4 inches of snow, about 20 degrees today. This morning a flock of robins arrived, and were feeding on the berries in the small trees in my front yard. It was cloudy then, and I did not get pictures of them. Here's a shot of a few in the neighbor's holly tree this afternoon. The birdhouse, as well as my own, has icycles. And the quirrel was enjoying the seeds I scattered for the other birds.

We made an afternoon jaunt to a farm to attend a stallion open house, which included Team Valor's Visionaire. And here are a couple of scenes I captured from the barn, both manipulated with PhotoImpressions effects. Cloudy enough to not get good shots, but less-than-perfect images can be fun to 'enhance'.

December three, already! The squirrels provide a lot of entertainment in exchange for a little birdseed. This picture is taken through the craftroom window, on a cloudy day, so not a great shot. The previous posting of these 'fur-birds', that feeder is outside my kitchen window.

The Christmas scene is set up in my unused built-in tv cabinet.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I can't believe it has been nearly two months since I've posted any new pictures here. I've kept pretty busy all this beautiful fall, with my dollmaking and other crafts, a little yard work, and a whirlwind trip to visit family in October. We have had only a few frosty nights earlier this month, and though the pots of beans and tomatoes are gone, the allysum is still going strong and the impatiens, tender as they are, as still blooming under the bushes. I created a couple of bulb beds where I transplanted some iris to, and raked and mowed/mulched up a lot of leaves, and cut back the hostas, etc. A few more oak leaves have fallen and need raked up, and blown out of the shrubbery, but otherwise I guess I'm ready for winter. Here's the oak leaves I raked out of this one bed, and what was left of them after running the mower over them. The bag has twigs in it.

Some Bugs still hanging around on the marigolds and calendula.

I put up a seedbell in the front yard for the birds, and attracted several varieties, including a pair of titmouse (titmice?), sparrows, cardinals, and this rare bushytailed fur-bird.

Hey, we're getting a little soggy here!

Forecast is clearing off today and sunny all week. Very welcome after this week of mostly cloudy and intermittent rain. From Lexington south and eastward, they have gotten way more than this.

Occasional showers...

I didn't empty the gage yesterday, so this is a running total.

I think I'll turn the sprinkler system off, at least for this week, with rain predicted off and on all week. This is what we got between this morning. The sassafras trees in my front yard are trying to tell us it's fall, now. Starting about the first of Sept., random leaves quickly change to a deep red. They are not very big trees, 4 of them between my yard and Kathy's.

I have one lone sunflower bloom. Here it is in 'negative' colors.

Flash!

Views from the front door this morning.

After morning coffee in the front screen porch, watching the traffic go by in the rain, I got the camera, opened the screendoor, and took a shot...Oops, forgot to turn off the flash. It was darker than I realized, I guess. No, that is not hail. Interesting reflections in the in the individual raindrops. I'll have to try this at night sometime. Not the best picture, but here's the shot without flash. And the view from my front door to Kathy's, just after the shower was over. I like the reflection in the wet bricks.

More special gifts of summer

Lovely things in unexpected places. Seed pods are so often overlooked, but have their own unique beauty. These are pods on Kathy's Tree Peonies. They bloom earliest and have the biggest blooms and seedpods. I love the fuzzy pods and the highly polished seeds. Like glass beads on velvet.


Spot made his usual morning visit for a second course, after being fed at his own house.
More of the best of this morning's images. The ants are those really tiny ones, about an eighth inch in size. They are in a hosta flower cluster. These big hostas produce a flower head that just keeps on blooming. I counted 50 buds on one stem, in various stages of devopement, each flower only lasts a day, but they just keep on coming.

Visitors in my garden

My morning walk through the yards...a wonderful way to view the new day. This little allium, growing between a rock edging and the driveway, had only a couple flowerheads last year. The allyssum is so vigorous, it seemed the photos would capture the fragrance. Then I noticed the visitor on the allium....I think he's a Black and White Wasp. Not enough white on his head to be a Bald-Faced Hornet. At any rate, he was only interested in his breakfast of nectar. I'd never seen one like this before .





Other visitors in the garden this morning were the little pale spider on the clematis, which I didn't see until I began in to edit the photo. The bee almost hid in the center of the crepe myrtle. The fly on the magnolia pod was a surprise, too. That is a zoom telephoto shot, uncropped. Those fuzzy pods are interesting subjects to photograph. The little late-blooming clematis grows rampant in Kathy's back yard. Several of these photos were taken in her yard, some in mine.

At last. Some new pictures posted!

Here are a few from my August Folder. ( Click photo to enlarge) . The newer doll pictures are on the cloth dolls page. http://clothdollsbyvada.blogspot.com/