They're Here!

Our first hummingbird showed up on May 10th!

It's always such a treat to have them back after 8 l-o-n-g months.
I'm awed that they fly thousands of miles back to the same spot as previous years. They always look for the feeders right where they hung last year, and I hurry to put them up so the little fellows can stock up. I imagine they must be tired after their long trip.

Here in the northeast we only have the ruby-throated hummingbird. The rufous hummingbird has been sighted in the east, as it migrates north, but not by me I'm afraid. The sightings have been mainly along the coast.

I put up two feeders....one on the front porch, and one on the back. You know how the males don't like to share!

I took quite a few photos before I finally caught this little fellow sitting still for a second.

It's hard to get the red throat to show up in a photo. The light caught the red throat just right in this picture at the front feeder.

This is a little lady. She doesn't have the pretty red throat that the male has.

I saw a male displaying behind her (arcing up and down)and she turned her head around and gave him a disdainful look. I guess it takes more than that to impress this gal :)

They sound like a huge bumblebee as they zoom around. They can really startle you as they fly close by when you're pottering around outside.

And guess what came to the feeder today? Yes, a Baltimore Oriole!!

I grabbed my camera and rushed up the stairs because it disappeared up into the big maple out the front. I spotted it sitting on a branch and then it flew to this post on the top of our porch. There were double panes of glass and they weren't very clean, but I clicked off a couple of shots hoping for the best. I was amazed that the picture came out this clear.

We put up an oriole feeder a week ago for the first time ever, in an effort to get some of these beauties to visit. We've had a few in previous years, but we'd like to have more and encourage them to stay.

Later when I came in for a break from working in the garden, I spotted the oriole pecking at an orange slice on the feeder. He was having a grand time with it. I didn't see him drink any of the nectar.

Back outside later in the afternoon I heard a lovely warbling song up in the big cut-leaf maple and looked up to see a female oriole.

It's lovely to know that they're around. I hope we see lots more of them.

We've noticed them nesting over the road in the hedgerow in previous years. They can be seen and heard chasing crows and hawks away from their nest. Feisty things they are.

We've had another very busy week, with still chilly temperatures and some rain on and off.

My hubby finished planting the corn today. Can you hear him breathing a sigh of relief? :)

We're thankful for the help he had from a few kind souls, including his brother, and our very good friend Nancy...who loves to do field work. She finds driving a tractor relaxing :)

I've been plant shopping and have been taking lots of photos of all the beautiful spring blooms in our garden. I'll post more soon. The bleeding heart bushes are out of this world this year!!

And of course, the lawn seems to grow 2 inches as soon as it's cut, and the dandelions are running rampant...threatening to take over the world! Help!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Edit: Blogger's latest quirk is to shut off the comments. Have you noticed? I've seen it happen to a couple of my blog friends, and now, when I looked at this post this morning the comments were turned off. So if you usually get comments and aren't seeing any, check that.

Dear old Blogger...it's a love/hate relationship we have! It's like the friend who drives us crazy, but we love them anyway :)

In The Pink!

I've so much appreciated all the lovely comments and Mother's Day wishes.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit and leave your cheery notes. Each one brightens my day.


We've had another perfect day filled with glorious sunshine......just too nice to spend inside!

Pink is one of my favorite colors so I thought I'd share a few of the pink flowers that are blooming at the moment.

The tulips are putting on a lovely show!

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra)....so delicate, and intriguingly shaped.

Arabis (Rockcress)

This mass of tiny white flowers is bright and cheery with the Johnny Jump Ups.

I know.....they're not pink, but I snuck them in anyway.

Pink and white are so pretty together :)

Fringed tulips. I love them!

The blooms are smaller this year, but last year only 2 of the bulbs produced blooms.

Diasia (Twinspur)

I've been shopping at my favorite nursery while helping out. This is one of the beauties that came home with me. Isn't it gorgeous? I'll put it in a mixed container.

I need to thin the hyacinths. These flowers are not filling out the way they should. But they're beautiful nevertheless.

I hope all you mothers out there have a truly wonderful

Mother's Day!

Please consider yourselves hugged!

Colorful Spring!

We've been enjoying glorious sunshine and warm temperatures for the past week! Consequently, we've been outdoors as much as possible. Between working at school, helping at the nursery, and working outside, I haven't had much time for blogging. I'm missing you all and wishing I had time to visit and see what you're up to. Soon, I hope! We had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, which brought some welcome rain. We've had a couple of dry weeks and things were dusty.

Here's Finnegan in the hyacinths.

Finn can usually be found where he's not supposed to be! And look at the innocence! Naughty? Who me?

Pretty in pink

The hyacinths have been so lovely, and oh, the perfume! It's glorious.

Perky little grape hyacinths

My first tulip!

Second tulip bloom surrounded by Johnny Jump Ups.

Jasmine is having a ball! She's loving the sunshine and being outdoors. Here she is batting a rock around. I've never seen such a play cat!

We still have daffodils blooming.

Pete and Murphy are great helpers :)

I wish they could mow the lawn!

Thinking of you all and hoping you're having a great day!

Real moms......

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Shelly tagged Jelly, who in turn tagged me

with the task of finishing the above sentence.

A photo is required to go with the sentence.


Please take a couple of minutes and have a look at what those two witty young moms/mums have written (click their names). I guarantee you’ll have a chuckle.

Here’s what I came up with:

Real moms are drill sergeants who read bedtime stories!

This photo was taken on Halloween in 1978

Andrew is the clown and Kylie is the fairy. I am dressed in my hubby's Marine Corps uniform. When I told him what I planned to write he suggested this photo :)

Thinking of the daily struggles moms face as they set limits and endeavor to steer their kids in the right direction brought to mind a funny little incident from my child-rearing years (funny in retrospect, that is.....athough I must admit my hubby and I had a good laugh about it at the time).

It happened during Andrew's less-than-angelic middle school years, when more often than I care to admit, I thought of him as a child only a mother could love...and sometimes this mother's feelings were not altogether loving.

Andrew, if you're reading this, I say those words with great affection :)

His class was studying Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry and this is approximately what he wrote:

My mother nags me

constantly, out of habit

She can't help herself

(I couldn't find the original paper, although I know I stored it in a safe place, not too long ago, for future reference!)

Now imagine how I felt knowing Andrew had handed this in to his teacher for marking?

But young mothers take heart! Early in his sophomore year (year 10), he actually became a pretty nice teenager :)

*Please note that we are "moms" here in the USA, while in Australia where I was born, we are "mums". Jelly thought I might be a bit confused, but I answer to both :) Just don't call me "The Old Nag" (please)!

Now it's my turn to tag 3 other moms.

I'm tagging Sandy, Horizon and Tuffenuf.

I hope they'll take up the challenge because I'm sure they'll come up with something creative!

Take your time ladies. I know all 3 of you are busy. If you don't have time or just don't want to do it, that's fine. No pressure whatsoever.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Golden Daffodils Galore!

Our gardens are filled with daffodils nodding their bright heads in the breeze, although today and yesterday they were drooping a little at times in the cool April showers. We had some dry periods too, so that I was able to get outside with my camera and have a little fun.

These are King Alfred daffodils.

The grass is turning green and beginning to grow. Soon it'll be time to get out the lawn mower and weed wacker. I need to do some trimming around this garden already.

The blue of the Scilla Sibirica makes a pretty contrast with the yellow.

I like these white daffs with the yellow centers too.

Jasmine can't wait to get outside these days, now that the temperatures have warmed up a bit. They actually haven't been particularly warm this week, with a chilly wind blowing sometimes.

This is Tink. I couldn't get her to smile :)

The cats love to play in the gardens, much to my frustration. You know how they like to be close by :)

This is Finnegan. Toby and Murphy are in the other garden.

And now Murphy is in the Lilac bush with Tink.

I'd love to properly capture the sunlight shining through the daffodils at twilight. It's truly a golden glow! I wish you could see it. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's my favorite time of the day to look out and see the daffodils reflecting the beautiful fading rays of light.

The perennials will grow up and cover most of the daffodil foliage while it feeds the bulb for next year. It will fade away between June and July. Sometimes I put a rubber band around the clumps after the flowers are finished, to keep them from falling over on neighboring plants and help them look a little tidier.

These daffs are growing in the little fence garden at the bottom of the driveway. I've seen a lot of mole activity in this garden and getting rid of them is on my list of jobs to do.

Jasmine is always a big help, of course!

There are hyacinths opening in the gardens further up, but I'll save those for another post.

It's been a very busy week with working at school, plus time spent at the nursery. I got a little work done in the gardens, but not as much as I would've liked. Very soon it'll be time to plant window boxes and containers. My hubby has been plowing, dragging and picking rocks, getting the ground ready to plant corn and hay crops. He's also been enjoying himself using the sawmill whenever he has time.

I'm hoping and praying for more sunshine and warmer temperatures during the coming week. We have more rain predicted, but there'll be some sun in between according to the weather man.

Good!!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Joyful, Joyful!

My very first daffodil bloom, Friday, April 20th!

Spring seems to have finally sprung here in upstate NY, after a couple of false starts.....

and I'm rejoicing!!!

This is what our front yard looked like after Monday's (April 16th) big nor'easter snowstorm a week ago. The birds were busy at the feeders all day. We had about 7" of snow but it melted within a couple of days.

Now that that we have sun and warm temps the birds are singing sweetly and a pair of chickadees are building a nest in the nest box on the grape arbor

These crocus bounced back remarkably well after being completely buried in snow.

I'm amazed at how large these three colorful crocus blooms are.

On Friday morning the daffodils in this garden were getting ready to pop open....

And by 4PM they were bobbing their cheerful faces in the breeze.

And now, on Monday, we have a host of golden daffodils, and that favorite poem by William Wordsworth fills my mind as I gaze upon their bright yellow beauty....

"I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze".

This was always a favorite of my father's too, and made me think of him, so I called him tonight and we had a nice chat. He lives in Australia in an assisted care facility, and at 90 years old he's still doing quite well. He has the beginnings of dementia and doesn't remember things so well these days. I think it took a while for him to realize who I was, but he didn't say so, and he had it figured out after about 10 minutes into the conversation.

The cats were out playing and enjoying the warmer temperatures (Murphy and Pepper).

We had a high of 76ºF/24ºC on Friday and I'm sure you can imagine how good that felt to us. The last time we had temps in the 70's (around 22ºC) was 6 months ago, on October 9th!

Last Thursday and today I had a wonderful time helping out at my favorite nursery!! Can you imagine the exultation? (Yes Val, I'm exulting!) (Val is an exulter :) There were 3 other ladies there besides the owner. Two of them are Master Gardeners and the other is the president of a local garden club.

I was in seventh heaven planting flowers and talking gardens. What could be more fun? Well......there's grandchildren, but this is a close second :)

These lovely geraniums will be ready for Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May.

Last night we performed our Community Choir concert, "The Love Of Jesus", an Easter musical. We had to cancel it last Sunday because the storm started on Sunday afternoon and the weather was just too nasty for traveling on the roads. The music is beautiful, and we were so thankful to have the chance to sing it because at first our director thought we wouldn't be able to reschedule.

Here are a couple more photos of the barn cats enjoying the sunshine. That's Murphey to the left, Pepper is the black and white, and Cleo is the calico. She's a sister to Jasmine, our house kitty, but from the litter of the previous summer.

Cleo and Murphy again

And here's sweet Pete sunning himself.

They were all keeping me company as I worked in the gardens, cleaning up and doing some weeding.

Tonight we had thunder, lightning and rain. Our first thunder storm of the season! We have cooler temperatures (50'sF/10ºC) in the forecast for the rest of the week, but we've had a nice taste of spring at least, and I have faith that there'll be more coming soon!

I hope you all have a lovely week. I'll try to catch up on my visits to your blogs during these next few days. It's been busy here!