removers of dung and plants, very young

 It's absolutely perfect weather...warm and rainy...and I've been spending as much time outside as I can.  I found this little treasure by the barn this week:  

It's the skull of an Eastern cottontail rabbit.  The back of the skull is gorgeously porous!  It reminds me of sea coral.

We've got quite a few rabbits around here, so finding an occasional skull is not unusual.  I was excited to find a scarab dung beetle, too!  Check out that horn!

He's a bit different from the dung beetles that I saw in the south:

I'd love to see one in action again!  

Spring showers bring April flowers here.  

Lilacs and apple blossoms are blooming concurrently this year and make a gorgeous bouquet.

A few spring bulbs are still producing!

The grass is carpeted with violets, too low and dense for the lawnmower blade.

I saved and planted white violets last year and have been rewarded with a big group of them this spring!

Borga has developed quite the green thumb.  :)

She loves to romp in the fields and back by the pond...

...or hang out by Todd.

She and Claudia fight for Todd's attention. 

 

giving Todd a foot rub the way that only a cat can!

She's a big help when I'm working, too.

Unfortunately, she hasn't had much of an opportunity to help, since I haven't been in the garden much.  I made an effort and planted about 75 poppies in the "Hunk o' Seedling" style, in clumps rather than as individuals. Hopefully it's not too late in the season for them!  I'm delayed with everything because of my shoulder/elbow tendonitis.  I'm extremely limited when it comes to digging and weeding - pretty much essentials this time of year.  I'm not sure how my 2022 garden will progress.  I've got quite a few seedlings, so I'll have to continue with my tendonitis stretches and see what happens.  So far, I'm spending more time in-house with Calliope than outside working in the nice weather.  

She's good company, at least.  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!

Lilac-adaisical Days

The title of today's blog is a bit of a joke, because spring days are absolutely the busiest around here! On top of my regular schedule, I have to squeeze in my spring necessities: taking care of growing plants and seedlings and taking lots and lots of photos.

Some I don't have to take care of...I just enjoy them when they pop up in the yard, all on their own. I love spring violets.

I especially love the ones that have a nearly blue tint. We've got a lot of them right now and they make lovely little bouquets!

The big news is that our 'lilac season' has begun. From now until late May, we'll have lots of beautiful blooms to enjoy! It was a long wait. First the buds appeared...

They swelled and lightened, and a few solitary blooms showed.

Then more...

...until they all popped.

Then poor Todd gamely finished several meals of sauerkraut and sausage while I stopped cooking and cleaning and did nothing but took lilac photos and arranged bouquets.

I can't help it...they're so beautiful! I think the blooms look especially nice with viburnum blooms.

It's a nice contrast.

Of course, there were mini bouquets too.

Lilacs are amazing!

We've picked some little flowers on our walks. Here are some white violets and spring beauties.

They last for several days if you change the water regularly.

The tulips are up!

Tulips last about a week in bouquets. Right now we just have red tulips, but when we move I'm going to plant lots of different colors.

With all the rain and alternating nice weather, our grass grew embarrassingly high. We had to mow, even if it meant mowing over our beautiful patches of grape hyacinth. I couldn't let them go to waste, so I picked many of them...

...and for a week, every surface in the house was covered with these purple blooms!

The creeping thyme has flowered.

More purple for the back yard. Even when the flowers wilt, this is a really attractive, low-growing groundcover.

The columbines are sending up spikes.

Spring is in full bloom around here! There's so much life. I've spotted butterflies...

...and carpenter bees.

Bosewichte has been begging to go outside for weeks. He's almost exclusively an indoor cat, but sometimes I let him outside to stretch in the sun.

He's mostly indoors with Tabitha, though, so I always have two pairs of eyes staring mournfully at me through our sunroom screens when I work in the yard.

Make that three pairs.

Don't let those hang-dog eyes fool you. She runs and plays in the park for at least an hour a day!

That doesn't include all of her home playtime, either.

When I haven't been working or cleaning or squeezing in knitting or caring for seedlings or weeding in the garden or taking photos or arranging bouquets, I've been baking. I found this great recipe for mini gourmet hamburgers with whole-grain buns.

Wait, that's not true. These are actual brownie/cookie combos, baked up for April Fool's Day! I meant to bake these and another tricky treat earlier this week to fool Todd, but I ran out of time. I whipped these up on April Fool's morning and took them to a friend's house to fool her children! They're so easy to make. Peanut butter cookies for the 'bun' and brownies baked in a 9 x 12 instead of 8 x 8 pan and cut into 'hamburger' circles. Red- and yellow-colored icing completed the look.

I did end up fooling Todd, of course, by cutting up a piece of paper into thin strips, taping the ends together, and folding the long strip over and over again until I had one long springy length, easily flattened. I taped one end to the floor and another end to a $20 bill. When Todd picked up the money, the long white snake-like strip stretched up with it, causing quite a yelp!

Hope you have a great week!