Wednesday, May 06, 2020

If the thought counts....

I thought about a May Day post, a "May the Fourth be with you" post, and a Cinco de Mayo post, but you got nada. And now, once again, I've got a ocean liner-sized boatload of photos to share, all of which I was telling you about (in my mind) while I took them; sending thought-posts would be so much easier! Instead, you are getting word salad with TONS of photo-croutons. 🤪

Part of my posting problem is my penchant for doing just one thing at a time (that's why I'm either knitting something or spinning something, rarely both). A blogpal who has mostly switched to Facebook nominated me there for a 10-day photo challenge which I accepted. That ended today; I did the challenge on Instagram and shared it to my FB page so if you would like to see my "LIFE IS GOOD. Ten days, ten photos of things that give me joy (without explanation)" posts you can click on the little blue Instagram button over on the right. Now onto all the other photos I've been taking....

'Lodged' pasture grass
Rain brings rainbows

We had our driest April in over 50 years and the third driest on record; less rain and more sun has contributed to burgeoning plant growth around here – including WEEDS. We've had some significant showers since May started, so I've been taking advantage of the moistened earth to yoink up as many weeds as possible. I'm not making a very visible dent for the bushels I've hauled off, except in one small area – which I admit I chose just to have ONE spot where my efforts are apparent. 🙄
The stairs down the south side of the house on Sunday, before.
On Sunday, after weeding the little bed on the left and sweeping the stairs.
This morning, after more debris fell and more weeding on the right.
Don't miss Chuckie posing by the rhodedendron!
Brian has done yeoman's work on the garden, weeding it all and then hauling in composted manure. Now it needs to be rototilled, but our ancient walk-behind is dead so we'll probably rent one. Rick thinks that Brian has too much compost in there to make rototilling possible; I guess we'll see.

This morning I checked our fruit trees. Besides the two baby figs on my wee fig tree, there are baby cherries readily visible, but I had to hunt for prunes and apples. I hope that's just because it's early; we hardly got any prunes last year and applesauce is a staple here.



And these are baby English walnuts!
Chuckie in a cherry tree
The rhodies have been glorious this year, and my irises promise to be as well. After the first iris I showed you, several of the brown/burgundy ones (most of what we have) have opened, and today the yellow & white and purple & white are joining the show.








Other vegetative beauty around the place.
The northwest corner of our house.

Male (pollen) cones on a long-needled evergreen on the west edge of our lot

One of the three new lavenders I planted last year
Poppy is doing well. All her baby teeth are gone and shiny white adult teeth now FILL her mouth. At yesterday's PT session, she did much better on the treadmill, even walking 'hands-off' part of the time; today I'm noticing more use and less limp in her bad leg. Hopefully she can have a play date with the 'neighbor boy' soon; she's got more energy than any of us can run off!

That lower left canine was her 'last baby tooth standing;' it's now gone.


Waiting her turn last week
Yesterday's grown-up girl!


I have two 'series' of cute Poppy photos to share in another post; here's a teaser from one:
Poppy has been desperate to play with the sheep, but most of them would just as soon flatten her as look at her. Bing, however, was willing to say "hi."



The sheep are all doing well, although more than half of them still need to be sheared. Vienna's fleece was #5 to be harvested; I checked Sarai yesterday but her fleece still isn't loose enough to be rooed. (The first five fleeces went to one buyer, who is not in a hurry for her last four.) As soon as I publish this, I'm going down to shear Bardot's huge fleece. The boys have been enjoying daily pasture time; today they are in the grassy strip between horse paddocks and arena to graze that down again (the girls mowed it thoroughly earlier).

Beginnings and endings:
someone fledged

evening color in the eastern sky
It's been an eventful week. Last Saturday was my parents' 50th anniversary. My sister and I had talked about some big family trip we could all take together this year to celebrate; instead we had to settle for sending flowers and setting up a Zoom gathering. The silver lining of that was seeing and hearing some family members I haven't seen in years. Then on May 4 (ironically), a former schoolmate of Brian's, a Star Wars trivia master and the younger son of the school's long-time volunteer bus driver passed away. He had battled cancer for several years and last we knew was cancer-free and doing well, so the news was a sucker-punch shock. The heartbreak of losing a loved one for any reason is amplified in this season of social distancing; I hope there can be a public memorial later. So many things aren't happening this year; these are nothing compared to grieving in isolation, but in addition to my parents' anniversary celebration plans and Brian's high school graduation, my 40th high school reunion, Rick's niece's graduate program graduation and subsequent performance gig in Europe, our annual women's retreat and Cowboy Campmeeting have all been cancelled. Let this be a reminder to us all to make memories when we can; nothing is guaranteed in this life, only in the next.

That's it for now from . . .

11 comments:

A :-) said...

Everything is so beautiful, but I don't know how you keep up with all of it :-) I'm sorry about the former classmate of Brian's. It's so hard when someone is so young when they leave.

Mama Pea said...

So many things to comment on/about! But glad you did manage to get it all in viewable and readable form. "May the Fourth be with you," love that and will have to find a way to use it myself!

Michelle said...

A, Corey was a few years older than Brian; but still way too young. He was diagnosed with cancer his freshman year of college and never got to go back. (P.S. I DON'T keep up with all of it!!!)

That is a downside of my giant catch-up posts that I hadn't thought of, Mama Pea. There's just so much that readers might not know how or what to comment on, that they just don't. 😟😢😩

Retired Knitter said...

You really do have some lovely plants growing in your yard! I don't have a green thumb at all. In fact, when you think about it you have so much LIFE surrounding you with the sheep and pets and horses and plants. Such a wonderful life, Michelle. In my next life, I want to be you.

Florida Farm Girl said...

Lovely green stuff at your house. I'd share some of our rain with you if I could. Oh, cherries. Nothing better than fresh off the tree. I am so glad to know Poppie is improving. Yeah, all our lives have been changed and I don't think there's an end in sight either. Take care and stay safe.

Jeanne said...

Am I the only one wondering what you mean by the term "lodged" pasture grass? I see that it's lying down, but I've never heard the term before!

Your flowers are so beautiful! I love the rhodies and the irises! Those baby figs are really going to have to grow some in order for you to get a taste! Actually, I'm surprised that such a tiny tree is so anxious to set on fruit.

Poppy! What beautiful teeth you have! And I'm so glad that she's improving at her PT.

Congrats to your parents on their 50th anniversary! - I'm very sorry about Brian's former schoolmate. It's so sad when young people die so young.

And speaking of Brian, it's great that he did such a good job in the garden!

Michelle said...

Yes, Elaine, TONS of life surrounding us – good and bad. The growing conditions that fosters flowers also fosters rampant weeds; the deer and rodents outnumber the sheep and chickens. But I try to focus on the GOOD stuff!

We don't spray so our cherries are usually wormy FFG – but if you pick and pop them in your mouth quickly, you don't notice them at all! 🤣

Jeanne, I learned that term from Leigh at "5 Acres and a Dream;" she's a wealth of information!

FullyFleeced said...

So much good stuff :) was wondering what fruit that is in the photo after the cherries? So glad Poppy is making such good progress inher rehab. She's such a cutie! I have the same issues here with weeds. Everything grows like crazy- including the buttercups. I've already pulled at least three cartfuls and there are still many beds that need liberating from the yellow scourge.

Michelle said...

Denise, those are prunes, the big ones (we also have an Italian prune tree). I guess the weeds keep us from getting lazy or complacent, eh? 😉

Claire MW said...

So beautiful to see all your flowers and the buds on the fruit trees. I am really hoping that we have blossoms this year and that they make it. Last year all the fruit blossoms froze and we had no apples or plums at all. Fingers crossed for this year.

Marcela said...

Great blog I enjoyed reading