Category Archives: Garden & Yard

Wildbird Wednesday – Fine Feathered PhotoBomb – Hummingbird

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I was taking to a photo of our pretty small sunflowers,
My husband said, “Hey there’s a hummingbird!”.
As I clicked the photo, I asked, “Where?” and looked up.
My husband pointed and replied, “There!”
The hummingbird buzzed over my head. I said, ” Shucks, I wish I’d seen it sooner, I’d of tried to take a picture of it.”
Imagine how tickled I was when I was going through my photos and discovered that I got a photo of the wee winged wonder after all.

I wish you all a great rest of the week!

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Cookie Tin Seed Trays

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I needed only a few flowers started this year and didn’t want to spend a fortune on seed trays. So after a while of thinking about it, I came up with the bright idea to order some peat pellets and use my cookie tins as trays for them.
So far the tins are working out quite well.
I figure they might rust sometime, but for seed starting, that’s not a problem.

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the week!

 

 

 

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Full Worm Moon 2021!

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3-29-2021: I stepped outside this morning and took a photo of the full moon. Yes, I know I should have taken it last night, but I forgot.
This full moon’s moniker is the’ Worm Moon’. it’s named because of the earthworms that might be venturing out and taking a slither across the terrain this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere.
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, this full moon is known by several other names as well. Here’s a link to the article: Full Moon for March 2021

With all the storms and rain that we’ve had here lately, I expect more n’few of them slimmers might have woken up and ventured out and gone swimming.
Thankfully, the rains/storms have stopped (for a few days).
The sun is forecast to shine. It looks like it’s going to be a pretty good few days of fairly nice daily temperatures.

Wishing you all a week of sunshine and smiles.

 

 

 

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2021-2nd garden update – strange bug – sweet potato vines

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This is a first for us, in our garden we saw this strange bug like creature. It favors the wee pillbugs that live around here, but it’s much too large for one of them. I think it might be some kind of millipede, but it’s awfully short for the ones we’ve seen in this area.
This many legged creature is over an inch long. I took a photo of it beside a plastic golf ball. I didn’t dare touch it, even though it was laying still and may have been deceased. I feared it was napping and if I disturbed it, it might wake up in a bad mood. I thought about scooping it up in a jar, but I think that’s cruel, so I left it where it lay.

In my 1st 2021 garden update, I was asked about first frost on the potatoes and the sweet potato vines.
Our first frost isn’t due for a few weeks. The ground doesn’t usually get cold enough during the first frost to harm the potato sets under the ground. I will cover any potato plants that break the ground and intended to cover the sweet potato vines when there is a frost warning… however…I won’t get a chance to get that far with the sweet potato vines. As it turns out, the vines are a mighty tasty snack for deer. So, this probably ends my sweet potato experiment…

Have you started gardening yet?
I wish you much success with your gardens?

 

 

March 2021 The Feeling of Spring is on it’s way

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During the middle of February, our region got an ice-fall followed by a snowfall. Fortunately, it wasn’t dreadful, our region caught the edge of the artic blast that devastated so much of the country. The snow left long before the bitter temperatures did.

While the ground was covered in ice/snow, Spring seemed just a fairytale in a time far far away and the gardening season even further. It was out of our reach except in our memory, daydreams and picture books.
We’ve got Yukon gold potato sets, onions sets and a several packs of seeds on the ready to plant as soon as the weather breaks and last frost is a memory.
As I looked out across the snow covered yard to our garden spot, I longed for the gardening season to begin. Even though we’ve shrunk our garden to a small more manageable spot, it’s still a joy and relaxing to get out a work in. Plus the delicious veggies, oh yes.

As I was tidying up my potato bin, I found a sweet potato that apparently read my mind about missing gardening and felt sorry for me. It decided to break free of the plastic microwavable bag and grow.
Well, cool, I’ve been wanting to start a sweet potato vine, I just didn’t think the pre-treated microwave ready bagged ones would grow. Guess I was wrong.
I fixed it a small jar of water and set it in the window to see if it would grow further. In the above photo, except for the toothpicks, is how it was straight out of the potato bin. It was giving it a wonderful effort to grow.
I had my doubts that it was going to do anything for the first week and a half, then it surprised me with roots and lovely little green leaves. Feels like a bit of Spring in my home. 😀
It looks as if, I might get 2 or 3 slips (vines) to plant in the garden. If I can keep the vines alive, Hopefully, they’ll grow a sweet potato or two for us to have for dinner this Summer. ;D

My daffodils are blooming. They are such a cheerful spot of color against the gray and browns that dominate the landscape.
I was going to skip mentioning the folk lore of ‘snow lays once on daffodils’… however… I went surfing and from a quick look, the lore is disappearing off the net. There are fewer mentions of it now, so I feel I should go ahead and give it this quick mention lest it is forgotten.
There’s an old saying that’s been passed down, in many southern families, for oodles of generations, that says,
‘snow lays once on daffodils’.
Without fail, even if it’s just a dusting or light snow, every year, the saying holds true.
I never was clear on if the snow has to be after they bloom, so whenever it snows and the stems are up, I take photos and hope for the best.

As an added thought here:
I feel like we all need to keep some of the fun lores going, if for no other reason than to give newer and future generations a much needed chuckle for the day.

Do you have any pleasant or fun lore that you and your family pass down through the generations?

I wish you all a week of Sunshine and Smiles.

 

 

 

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February 2021 Weather Gifts and Crafts

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I hope everyone had a pleasant Valentine’s weekend and was able to spend some time with loved ones. I also hope that you all are staying warm and aren’t too iced and/or snowed in.
We had a beautiful snowfall a week ago on February 7th. It was like a winter wonderland, It melted away rather quickly.
We were fortunate over this past weekend, we got just a bit of ice. Right now we’re having a cold rain. According to the forecast, things are about to change for the worse. I’m thankful we did our grocery shopping Sunday morning.. We may be iced/snowed in for a while… hope not… we’ll see. :/

This year we wasn’t much in the mood for Valentine’s celebrating with flowers, chocolates or jewelry activities: flowers die and I rarely wear ornaments other than my wedding ring. So, no gifts is no big deal.
However when my husband hit on the perfect gifts this year, I accepted them with joy and appreciation.
Instead of a dozen roses, I got a fine gauge kb knitting loom.
Instead of gaudy pieces of jewelry, My husband and I gave each other an electric start generator. This is something we’ve wanted since we got hit by a tornado last spring 2020 and we were without electric for a week.
Right now, with threats of bad weather and possibilities of power outages in our area, it’s the perfect time for us to invest in a generator.
In crafting news… My husband and I have started a couple more diamond dot paintings. His is a fish setting and mine is mason jars with flowers. We figure, as long as we’re grounded at home still, we might as well continue to be creative. We really do enjoy this form of crafting. It’s amazing how relaxing it is.

Wishing you all a good week.
Keep warm and stay safe.

 

 

 

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12-30-2020 – The Last Full Moon of 2020

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I think a full moon is the proper way to end 2020. I’m not sure how others feel about a full moon, but I’m holding hope that it’s lighting the way into 2021 for better days to come.
I felt that I needed to try to get a photo of the big beauty. I stepped outside and discovered that it was cloudy. I frowned as I thought I wouldn’t be able to get a clear photo of it. Thankfully, there came a nice break in the clouds and I managed to get a fairly decent photo.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday filled with happy thoughts.

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This full moon is called the ‘Cold Moon’; a Mohawk name due to the cold conditions of this time of year.
It’s also been called the ‘Long Night Moon’; a Mohican name for it because of its rising on one of the longest nights of the year.
For more info about December’s full moon visit –
https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-december

 

 

 

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2020 Gardening and A Lily-Bug

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So far this season, We’ve had good crops of most things. We got about 50 or 60 pounds of potatoes. It’s been quite dry and the squash plants didn’t get half the size they should have. Our corn is maybe only 4 1/2 feet tall and loaded in ears.

Fortunately, we haven’t had much problems with insect-pests this year. We haven’t seen a bean beetle, tater-bug, squash-bug, horn worm nor cut worms. This is an absolute first for us. It’s a blessing, but also kind of odd feeling. Early in the season, We experienced a short-lived threat from flea beetles on the potato plants. The lady bugs moved in and took control and the flea beetle invasion was resolved.

As for 4 legged critters: deer and rabbits, well they’ve been enjoying our garden and wiped all our beans and one row of cucumbers. The deer keep the tomato plants trimmed back a bit.

We discovered recently that there’s been a 2 legged critter in our garden and it helped itself to some of our biggest green tomatoes and possibly some other stuff. The way we know it’s not a deer thief is that the vines are damaged where deer snack on them. However, The vines are in tack right down to the tomato caps where our large green tomatoes have disappeared, so only a bi-ped could accomplish that feat.
You may ask, How do we feel about someone taking our produce? Well, we’re a bit sad that the person didn’t just come and ask for the vegetables. We’d have gladly shared, since our garden produces more than we need. We hope whoever took the vegetables has good health and benefits from them.

I haven’t done any crafting for the past few months. I’ve lost my inspiration. I hope to find inspiration again someday. So, I don’t really have anything to post about unless it’s a holiday and I post a greeting.

For now, I’m like the little lady bug in my lily.
I’m hunkered down and praying for a miracle.

I send huge wishes for health and happiness to you all.

 

 

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