winter gloves and garden loves

It was nearly 80 degrees on Friday, so I rushed out to get some of my seedlings in the ground.  They can tolerate a little bit of cold, but in spring, I can't.  I adore winter until early March, and then I can only think about warmth.  Todd laughed at me yesterday in my thick winter coat, wool hat and gloves, but that 45 degrees feels like 45 below after I'm winter-finished.

I wasn't the only one who was appreciating the warmer weather.  This garter snake was enjoying the sun, too.

While I was working in the garden, he slid in and out from beneath the brown paper strip I was using for weed suppression, finally settling into a coil at the edge of the bed.

Although I had to be careful not to put my hand on him while I was digging holes nearby, I'm not afraid of garter snakes and am glad that he's going to be working near my garden this spring!

I had to walk carefully when I was moving my trays of seedlings, because we have a resident Fowler's Toad.

Sometimes he's in the gravel by the barn, and sometimes he's barely visible, snuggled into a tuft of grass nearby.  They've got a great call that's been called sheep-like by some.

I'm glad to have these 2 natural sources of pest control nearby!

We've got a few crayfish towers (or, as we called them when I was growing up, crawdad holes) in the yard.

Although the dried towers can cause trouble for lawn mowers, having crayfish around is also beneficial!  They help to move nutrients and oxygen deep into the ground...help with water runoff...and abandoned holes provide a protective place for other little creatures.  I like thinking about their little feelers quivering out of the tower's top at night as they climb to the surface to forage for food. These towers can be flattened for mowing.  No worries, the crayfish will just build it up again.  :)  

The warm weather brought out the ground bees, too.  They swarmed everywhere, exploring and mating.  They, too, are completely harmless.  Males can't sting and females almost never do, and they're wonderful pollinators!  

Our other resident farm worker, Claudia, was out in the sunshine with me.  We've noticed that as she's becoming more...Rubenesque...by our heavy feeding, she's brought in a lot less voles.   :)

I got these seedings in the ground just in time...the roots are fine now, but on the verge of being a little too thick on the bottom (i.e. root bound).  

I've got close to 110 plants (Bachelor Buttons, Cress, and Snapdragons) planted in the first row, and I'm not done yet!  They are remarkably hardy.  With our weather fluctuations, the trays have sat outside in chilly temperatures, rain, and wind.  Still, I covered the row last night, with temperatures at or just below freezing in the forecast.  I'm gnashing my teeth, too, looking ahead to the midweek - dipping down to 24 one night!  That means cover for EVERYTHING, which is a huge pain.  But, as Todd joked yesterday as I was grumbling and strapping on my winter gear to move the seedlings yet again, "You chose this life."  

Yeah, yeah!  The work is made easier by all of the little garden companions and others, like this Brown Thrasher singing lustily in a nearby tree while I planted.

Easier, too, when I have a front row seat for spring progress.  I love seeing the apple tree budding out!

My back perennial garden, too, is putting on color.  Eeek, I've got to thin some of this out in the next couple of weeks!

With spring mornings like this, I don't even mind going out in the early chill to turn on the plant grow lights in the barn.

Here's hoping (unlikely as it might be) that this week's deep frost is our last.  I'm ready to make some real progress outside.

Have a great week!

it's white all right!

These eighty degree days are really bringing out the blooms!  So many white flowers right now.

It amazes me that even after 5 years, I can find new flowers in the yard.  This is Mountain Snow Pieris, an evergreen which blooms briefly every spring.  Tiny white bells.

And from white flowers to white goats...

It's baby time (!!!!) at the goat farm, so Todd and I took a quick trip there this weekend.  We weren't disappointed. 

So nice!  And lots of other sweet faces there, too.

It's been a hive of activity back at the house, too.  We finally got around to making some much-needed sewer line repairs.

We're also re-staining our deck and doing some painting...phew!  I found some time to take the cats out for some much-needed fresh air.

I found this little garter snake in a corner of the garden.

They are harmless, but I didn't want the cats to startle him so he was carefully relocated.  Garter snakes are great additions to any garden!

Have a great week! 

Peach Swans & Zombie Cats

With days in the 70s and nights in the 40s, the leaves are finally really changing.  We have 5 or 6 trees in the back yard that are all turning spectacular shades of red and yellow.

I bring in big fallen branches and put them in vases.  I think it's a great way to "bring the outside in."

Todd and I spend as much time in the sun room as we can.  It's warm in the late afternoons and we can open the windows.  We eat on our little homemade table and have long talks about this awful election.  Somehow being wrapped up in an old plaid blanket and looking out at the trees makes it seem a little less scary. 

I've tried to take the cats outside as much as I can.  I joked with Todd that we didn't need Halloween decorations on the porch...we could just prop Bosewichte up with a sign that said ZOMBIE CAT.  Give him a little sun and he slumps bonelessly against  the deck with a hypnotic stare that would make any zombie proud.

Tabitha prefers to do her sunning indoors.

I've had time to do a little exploring.  I found a persimmon tree at the edge of the woods that still had some late-season fruit.

In our side yard I found an owl pellet, the avian version of a hairball.  See all the fur?  Some parts of mice and other prey are too hard to digest, so owls will vomit up a mass of the leftovers.

I poked it apart and found some tiny bones.

Todd has the sharpest snake-sense of anyone I've ever seen, or maybe the worst luck.  He stumbled into this little garter snake, curled up in one of our side shrubs.

Totally harmless!

Meanwhile, although I haven't gotten around to basting together my first quilt quite yet (this week, I hope!), I'm already picking fabric for the second one.  It's so odd.  Normally I just like earth tones, plaids, very traditional and natural fabrics.  But for some reason, since starting to quilt, I've been drawn to odd things, like mint fabric with snails.  I'm building my next quilt completely around peach colored swans (Swan Fabric).  I can't help it...they're so whimsical and pretty!  I'll get this out of my system and then go back to plaids.

Have a great week!