Resident Ground Hog

My resident groundhog is just too funny, even when I find him sitting up nibbling on my plants. He loves daisies and coneflowers. In the spring he’s not so rotund but before the summer is gone you really can’t tell if he’s running on those short little legs or just rolling along. Because I have a French drain that runs across the back yard and there are small “bridges” where the walks cross it he has a series of man-made tunnels that he can maneuver through. I come home from work to see a dark shadow scurrying up the ditch to duck under the bridge. He’s fat and sassy and on the move and all’s right in our little part of the world.

Yesterday was a beautiful afternoon. I got home from work in time to go play in the garden for a couple of hours. Lots of things are up including weeds. Hopefully mulch will arrive before this weekend. The peonies are all up! I was really concerned that they wouldn't come back since they were all cut down early last summer but only a couple of them didn't make it. I want to get mulch down around everything before the yard people start coming this spring.

We were blowing bubbles this week end and look. The hosta made a perfect "holder".

McAlpine Gates on the Ohio River

These gates are on the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky, and control the waters above the McAlpine Locks. It's really neat to watch the waters when the gates are first opened. Lots of people like to fish a little farther down the river. The force of the water that these gates control has always facinated me.

Saturday Afternoon

Just a Saturday afternoon fishing trip. He had no idea his picture was taken or that he would become part of someone's blog. It would be interesting to know if he would recognize himself. I just talked about people fishing below the McAlpine Gates and wanted to show one of them. This was made minutes before the picture of the Gates and only a short distance down river.

How Old Are We?

I was out for a Sunday afternoon drive through this little town I found a unique and interesting sight. I like all the contrast and different textures used to fuse these buildings together. The yard was small but would have been beautiful with heirloom style flowers. At my house it's hard to decide where I will spend my time - outside in the garden or working on the house which I am renovating/restoring. In the spring the garden usually wins. Contractor gets to work on the house.

Spring in the Country

When spring arrives I realize just how much I miss my farm down in south central Kentucky. It's where I grew up and spent the first twenty plus years of my life. I've spent many hot summer days sitting under this big old Osage Orange dreaming of "big city" living. Now, I come home from work to my acre and half of "Heaven on Earth" and do all the things I didn't like to do when I was younger - Dig in the dirt, pull weeds, plant vegetables, grow herbs.

A laid back country life ain't so bad after all.

Small town or Big City?

It's amazing the wonderful pictures you can get when you just hold your camera out the window and click. Looks like a small town instead of a metropolitian area, doesn't it?

The Bradford pears were in full bloom giving the usually busy street an air of serenity.

Storm Brewing

Looking out across the water and watching the clouds as a storm brews is an awsome thing. This one had spots of sky, white cumulus clouds and the heavy, dark gray that I believe are nimbus with streaks of light. As a child I heard those streaks refered to as "the sun drawing water". The storm arrived, not many minutes after the picture was taken, bringing wind, rain, and thunder.

A Mighty Oak & A Mighter Power

I sat across the street from my drive one summer afternoon and admired this mighty Oak. It was fully clothed in green leaves at that time and was beautiful. I made a comment that it was one of the prettiest trees I had ever seen. Well, a few evenings later, during a thunderstorm a bolt of lighting ended its long life. It split the tree, dropping a huge branch across my drive and the next day when I checked it out there were big chunks of bark that had been splintered off. Looking at the huge old tree and the damage that had been done in a split second of time was a very thought provoking moment. The might powers of nature can make us realize just how small and insigificant we really are. I had hoped it would recover but not so.

Violet

Growing beside the dandelion (look in the upper left corner and you can see it's leaves) is a beautiful violet. They contrast beautifully but both are so invasive.

Pretty but Evil

This pretty little yellow flower can cause so much trouble. It is just plain evil in my opinion. Of course, that's not saying much. I have enough of them I could pick them for dandoline greens and have a pot ful.

Suprise Greeting Across My Drive

When you come home and turn into your drive you don't expect to see this across your drive. It hadn't even stormed, just a few rain drops but apparently this big old tree was just tired. Truthfully, I did not realize it had so much dead wood. As it went down it took a smaller tree out. Check out the picture of the face on the right side of the blog. That came from the smaller tree that fell. These are my "Wood Sprites".

Mother Nature's Vengenance

OK, so I’ve dug and pulled and cut and pulled some more and I finally found that there is a bit of terra firma down below all this tangled mess. I have managed to identify winter creeper, poison ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, grape vines and that wonder thing called a green brier (I’m not sure if I found it or it found me, whichever, it did leave it’s mark as did the poison ivy). The poison ivy has a trunk on it that is probably over an inch in diameter and the grapevines you could swing from. The honeysuckle and winter creeper – well, what can I say other than they seem to have been in some kind of contest with each other and everything else. I really wonder how many years it’s been since anyone cleaned up this area. I have made a slight change but there’s lots more to be done. As I was told, “Rome was not built in a day”.

I knew it! There really is ground underneath the tangle.

Old Goat

I would like to interdouce Billy, The Old Goat. His thought seemed to be "Don't even think you're gonna take my picture". If he could have gotten through the fence he would have eaten the camera after he knocked down the photographer. He's one nasty old goat but he is also good for a laugh or two if you keep him on the other side of the fence. He will chase you up a tree and then wait and wait and wait below for you to pick off leaves and feed him. Yep he is trully an "Old Goat".

Two of Nature's Own

These two deer are only part of the small herd that often visit my backyard, especially when there are apples on the big, old tree far back in the yard. I have a menagerie of animals that often visit. There's a fox who lives nearby and will sometimes bring her pups for a visit, a racoon with his little masked face and a big, fat groundhog. Oh, there is also a resident black snake who helps the cat keep away mice. Stay turned for more about these visitors.

There is Always Beauty in Nature

A picture from last summer

When I saw these nodding in the breeze they reminded me that as a child I would pick a handful from this same field and take them to the house for a bouquet.

Hey it actually works! I'm blogging! I'm blogging! I can't play video games, ask my grandson, but I found all the right buttons on the keyboard and clicked on all the right things to make the blog go "public" and I am a successful gardner (at least, I am in my opinion).

It Worked!

I've never been one not to try something new so when someone mentioned blogging my interest was piqued. “Blogging?” said I. “What is blogging?” So when it was explained to me that it was a journal of ones life I realized that the whole world would surely be interested; that they would wait anxiously for forthcoming postings chronicling all the brilliant, intelligent and exciting things I had to say and all the astounding things I have done as I have muddled my way through all these years, decades even. (Yeah right!)

Today let me share one of those astounding things.

The crocus are blooming!

It's a definite sign that spring is just around the corner. Its very cold here today but these little flowers don't seem to mind at all. Can't say I feel that way. Brrrrrrr! I see Spring peeking around the a corner. I also noticed that the chives are peeking through.

One more sign -- Bells of Ireland!