Back Yard Notes

The new flowers and plants are taking well in the flower garden.  The carpet roses are heavy laden with blooms.  The day lilies are close to making their spring appearance.  Their bed needs a coat of mulch before the summer heat sets in. 

Daddy Wren perched upon an old weathered tree stump just a few feet from me and began singing.  It was a perfect moment to snap a good photo.  I watched for a while as the wren parents made several trips around the brush in the back yard then in and out of the nest box.  I could hear the baby birds chirping when a parent approached the nest.

Piper likes to come out of the brush and play when I'm in the area.  She gets hyperactive and does all sorts of silly things that make me laugh.  She plays with pine cones and sticks and digs around in the dirt and piles of pine straw.  She runs and dashes about and sometimes takes an unpredictable notion to climb halfway up a tree.  On this day, she wanted to include Butters in her play but he displayed no interest in it.  He didn't have time for her nonsense because it was interfering with his cat nap.  

I enjoy the sights and sounds of my back yard.  I treasure the abundant signs of life in it.

No Spring Skips Its Turn

It's been a little over a year since I last wrote a post for my nature blog.  Much has changed in my life since then. Without going into details, I'm just going to share that my 34 year old son passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in September 2017 and I continue to have some health issues and will have another back surgery soon.  Life has been tough, but it continues.  I take it one day at a time.

Gone are the frigid cold days of winter.  The earth is warming up and the first perennials of a new spring have made their appearance.  Once they peep out from their pine straw covering, the Daffodils and Hostas grow rapidly.  I'm astonished at the size of the hosta leaves this year- they're huge!  The African irises completely died down during winter and the new plants have multiple bright yellow blooms on them.  The Asiatic lilies have multiplied a little and look promising. 

The St. Joseph's lilies are gorgeous!  They're among my favorite blooms and it's easy to see why- just look at those beautiful red flowers!  Nearby the calla lilies are peeping from their bed of pine straw and leaves.  A few of the pretty pink carpet roses have opened up in bloom and there's a ton of new rose buds on the stems.  They will be heavy laden with blooms in just a couple of weeks.  Sandy cleared all the weeds from the rose bed and applied fresh mulch so it looks great now.  

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.  

Drift Coral Carpet Roses

I've been mostly posting photos of my flowers lately because I haven't taken many wildlife or bird photos.  Due to back problems, I haven't been traveling or outdoors as much as usual. However, I'm grateful that I can sit on my back porch and watch our resident birds in action. The flowers and birds are soul therapy, especially during my recent confinement.  

The Drift Coral Carpet Roses I planted a couple of months ago have become so full and vigorous. The first photo was taken when there were just a few blooms present, but within the last 2 weeks, colorful roses have popped out everywhere.  The new blooms are a bright coral and fade to a pale pink as they age.  I've been really pleased with them so far.  I may add more carpet roses to my back yard next spring if these continue to perform well.  

Have a great end to this week, thanks for dropping in!