merry berries

 Before our recent below-freezing cold snap...

new calendula bloom opening up

...my flowers continued to behave irrationally.

mint and euphorbia

Everything, up until a few days ago, was so green and even showing new growth!

butterfly bush

The morning glory vines were covered with new flowers.

Crazy!

We may have lost the green this week...but we still have plenty of red.

Berries, berries everywhere!

Even a few red leaves, too.

It's much too cold for Claudia outside.  We've moved her into the temperature-controlled barn for the week.

In past years, she was always eager to get back outside, no matter how cold it was.  But in her old age, she prefers to snuggle in a warm bed indoors.

Meanwhile, I finally completed a little project that's been a procrastination point this past six weeks.  I bought a skiing fox Christmas ornament.  Cute fox, ugly brown coat.  What a missed opportunity for something cheerful!

I cut off the coat...

...and just freehanded a little knitted project that took less than an hour, start to finish.  I knitted a piece of fabric to roughly match the size of his previous coat.  I decided that I'd rather have a fun blue bathrobe!  A frilly collar peeking out completed the look.

That's more like it!  Now he's ready for Christmas!  :)  

Have a great week!

happy happy toy toy

 Green green green!

Things are really popping now.

apple tree budding

garden spearmint

lilacs

garden euphorbia

We're going to have to take animal predation a little more seriously this year, though.  Once again, I have lots of beautiful columbine mounds...

...whose flowers get eaten by rabbits as soon as they send up a stalk.

Last year was the first year that we didn't get a single flower from the garden...in prior years, there were so many!  Ugh...rabbits.

Unusual - especially in the spring! - the deer are getting into our front beds for the daylilies.

Todd has caught deer in our front bird feeders several times...they must have noticed the daylilies while passing through.  

Daffodils are still going strong, and other bulbs that I've planted...scilla, muscari, and hyacinth...are in bloom now too!  I love my little spring bouquets.

 

My indoor seed test went well, too.  About a third of the seeds tested sprouted.

Nice to be able to eliminate old seeds and add seeds to my planting pile.  

Claudia is not ready to give up on winter, though.  She loves sleeping in the heated barn when it gets really cold, and I frequently find her sitting on the doorstep out there, hoping to sneak in for a nap!  

Otherwise...Todd and I were at a toy show all weekend.  Now, you can imagine how I feel about toy shows, as someone who hates noise, crowds, germs, and deviations from my routine.  My energy drains out by about 9 a.m. on the first (of three) days and I feel a lot like this kid I saw:  

It's always kind of fun to see adults in costumes...

...but with my arm in a sling because of terrible tendonitis and my knee wonky from three days on concrete, you can imagine how thrilled I am to be home and now potentially YEARS away from the next toy show!  Recovery from a toy show is really tough...they're so tiring.  Even TODD day-naps for a couple of days after a show!

So glad to be home with my cats.

Hoping for a quick recovery so that I can be back on the trails in a couple of days...have a great week!

Genghis Khan's Garden

Indiana has sometimes been accused of having a rather unpredictable spring - that we can go from extreme cold temperatures to pretty warm ones, without the pleasant middle ground that makes spring so nice.  That may be the case sometimes, but not this year.  We've had a delightful long, cool spring, and looking ahead at highs in the high 60s next week, I see that it's not over yet!  This cool, wet weather is great for bringing out the wildflowers, like these Virginia Bluebells...

...and flowering trees, like redbuds.

The road to the farm is lined with them!

Work is slowly moving on at the house.  Just taking down the close, dark curtains that were in the living room opens it up and makes it look bigger and brighter.

After a week of work, the living room is painted, and so are the kitchen baseboards.  Meanwhile, I've been feeling like a kid in a candy store as I peruse and order wallpaper samples right and left.  Wallpaper, where have you been all my life? 

I've had to do a little yard work too.  I joked to Todd that we inherited Genghis Khan's garden, because it's chock-full of invaders.  Vinca, violets, but by far the worst is mint.  They all spread by underground runners and are near impossible to eradicate.  Mint, in particular, has long, deep, woody runners that mightily resist persistent tugs.

I dug up several large clumps...

...and planted them in a large wooden planter by the side of the house.  The planter will contain those nefarious roots, and I'll still get to use the mint.  Win win! 

Some good news in the front beds:  the massive bleeding heart in the center has re-seeded!  It's surrounded by 'babies' and I will dig them up in about a week and transplant them to other locations.  With the columbine and spring bulbs, it will look amazing in a couple of years!

I know there's a wealth of insect and animal life at the farm, but I just haven't had time to do much exploring.  I did see a really interesting moth on the back screen door.

No one is quite sure why the abdomen curls up, but some think that the curl is for mating purposes, or perhaps part of its camouflage.  I've seen several other interesting moths and hopefully I'll have time to get some photos later.

Lots of these around too!

I'm absolutely loving the front yard tree.  It looks totally different, depending on where you're standing.  So beautiful!

It's nice to make progress at the property, but it's REALLY nice to come home to a comfy couch and our sweet kittens. 

Have a great week!