(For the record, I did clean first. But it wasn't my first choice).
Looks like the groundhog is still mad at us. And he's going to take it out on us starting sometime Sunday. Afternoon or evening, or thereabouts. Winter Mix is the correct term. Monday is supposed to be brutally cold, with the high temps being in the 30's for the afternoon. Tuesday morning is also supposed to be pretty cold. It's still "up in the air" if we'll get any actual sleet, which is the most likely. Or snow. Or if it'll just be very cold and raining. We'll probably get something, cold is pretty much guaranteed. We just don't know what it will contain!
Otter is coming over Saturday with her laundry when she gets off work. We're going to take one of the two remaining loads to the used bookstore to turn in and I think we'll probably hit the library as well. I'll get her to work in the morning and pick her up when she gets off, then she'll come home with me and get the car. Bill's off Monday for President's Day then he's taking Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days, so she'll have the car through Wednesday at least. She's had very little experience driving in winter conditions, she's had the lessons/lectures/passenger experience many times but she hasn't really driving in anything other than a small snowfall. Mom's nervous at the thought, but she's gotta learn sometime!
This is my back fence. Bill noticed something parked on it one day a couple of months back. He noticed it for a couple of reasons: it was suddenly very quiet, no bird noises at all. And there were suddenly no birds in sight, anywhere, they were there and then they were gone. He discovered the reason, a hawk sitting on the back fence. We see them pretty often, but they don't usually park on the fence like that. One time, we watched a squirrel running along the top of the fence. Until it nearly ran right into a hawk that was sitting on the fence! I had no idea that squirrels could put the brakes on and back up at warp speed! I don't think that hawks are normally squirrel predators, but if it was hungry enough it might have gone after the fluffy tailed critter.
This is the tulip bed last Fall when we were planting. We cleaned the ground off, stirred the dirt up with a shovel and treated it with oil/soap/water and then left it to sit for several days. When it was time to plant, Otter mixed up the bulbs and tossed them all around the bed. Last time, she had them in patterns. This time, she decided to mix them up randomly. They are just now beginning to poke up through the dirt and it looks like there will be a lot of them that will come up. This will probably be the last time we'll have tulips for a couple of years. We might expand the back fence to the side/corner of the garage, which will mean that this area will not get the sun it needs. We'll probably have them again in the future, we're just not sure where they'll be.
This is also from last fall, it's the crepe myrtles. They are not right up against the fence, it just looks like that in the picture. They are planted between the trellis pieces which have honeysuckle planted against them. It looks like at least some of the honeysuckle has survived both the mowers last year and the winter. I can't tell for certain, but the crepe myrtles look like most of them have made it as well.
Hopefully, we'll have all of them come back and they will grow fast this year. Same thing for the honeysuckle. They'll all bring butterflies and hummingbirds, probably honeybees as well (but wasps and yellow jackets are not invited or welcome). Most importantly, they will block the view of the neighbors behind us into our back yard and dining room windows!
No comments:
Post a Comment