Posts Tagged ‘Glade’

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Honey Bees at Work

April 15, 2010

Honey bee at work in our redbud tree, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 14, 2010.

Have you heard of CCD?  Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder?

In the past few weeks I have read or seen stories about the disappearing honey bees.  It’s a cause for concern because honey bees pollinate a sizable portion of our fruits and vegetables.  The causes of the collapse are not well understood, but bee keepers are having some success in rebuilding colonies.

I was working in the yard yesterday near our redbud tree when I heard buzzing.  Looking around I found a couple of bumble bees flitting about.  I went in to get my camera, but by the time I got back the bumble bees were gone.  I did, however, find a couple of honey bees hard at work.

I haven’t heard of any problems with the bigger bumble bees, so I imagine I can try to capture a picture of them just about any time.  Under the circumstances I’m glad I found these hard-working honey bees.

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Posted in Glade | 16 Comments »

My World: Spring Is Busting Out All Over

April 13, 2010

Our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

My new camera allows me to capture most of our front yard in a single picture.  I took the picture above was taken yesterday afternoon from the road in front of our house.  Our pink dogwood tree is on the left and one of our redbud trees is on the right.  The containers along the driveway contain roses and you can make out two of our rose beds on either side of the driveway near the house and flagpole.

Our pink dogwood tree, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2010.

This picture of the dogwood tree branches was taken from the front of the house looking toward the road.

One of our redbud trees, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2010.

I also took this picture of the redbud tree from the front of the house.  It’s near the road, but it the prettiest of the two redbud trees that we have.

Our side flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2010.

Betsy and I built this flower bed a couple of years ago to handle an erosion problem on the side of the house.  Now we’re enjoying these tulips.  The house in the background is on the other side of the fairway.

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Posted in My World | 20 Comments »

Spring Color

April 12, 2010

Dad Adams Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon was absolutely gorgeous here on the Plateau and both Betsy and I spent as much time outside as we could.  Fortunately there is always something that needs to be done around the yard, so we have plenty of excuses for being out.

We have alot of color in our yard now and it is not only daffodils.  I think the flower up above is a narcissus, but since my Dad gave them to us when we moved up here, we usually call them Dad Adams Daffodils.

Red Rocket Hyacinth, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

We have not had a great deal of success with hyacinths.  They never seem to do as well after the first year.  However we did have a few pop up and bloom.  They may not look all that wonderful, but they still have a nice fragrance.

Life's a Cabernet Tulip, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

We’ve been very fortunate with our tulips so far this year.  The bright tulip above is Life’s a Cabernet, which is new.  It is multi-colored, but red predominates.

Halley's Comet Tulip, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 7, 2010.

I think my favorite new tulip is Halley’s Comet.  I got this picture early one morning before the sun caused them to open completely.

With all this beauty around us I guess you can understand why we enjoy spending so much time out in the yard.

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Posted in Garden | 17 Comments »

More Daffodils

April 8, 2010

Las Vegas Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 5, 2010.

We’ve been blessed with bright sunshine and warm temperatures for several days now.  It’s been great to be able to work out in the yard and to see things blooming again.

Our tulips are starting to bloom, but I haven’t gotten any of those pictures organized.    But we’re still enjoying our daffodils as well.  When I posted some daffodil pictures a few days ago, someone mentioned that they thought daffodils were always yellow.  So I thought I would share a couple more ‘different’ daffodils today.

The daffodil above is Las Vegas.  We’ve had it in our yard for a couple of years now.  Although the trumpet is yellow the petals are a beautiful white.

Pink Charm Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

This second daffodil is new for us this year.  It’s called Pink Charm.  It also has white petals, but the end of the trumpet is supposed to be pink.  I say ‘supposed to be’ because in our soil these daffodils look as orange as they does pink.  But we like them anyway.

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Posted in Garden | 11 Comments »

My World: Spring Has Arrived

April 6, 2010

Breck's Colossal Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 31, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

First of all, I hope you all had as wonderful an Easter weekend as we did.  Easter services are a joyous celebration and family and beautiful weather just made everything special.

I’m happy to report that Spring has arrived on the Plateau.  In a few short days we’ve gone from practically no signs of Spring to green grass, beautiful white Bradford Pears, yellow forsythia, daffodils and even tulips in bloom.

In addition to working in the yard I’ve been experimenting with my new camera with the macro lens.  It’s certainly different from a point-and-shoot, but I’m enjoying learning how to use my new toy.  I hope you’ll enjoy my experiments.

Our first daffodil to bloom was the big yellow daffodil, Breck’s Colossal, shown in the picture above.    We’ve got them in several places in the yard.

Replete Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 2, 2010.

This double daffodil, Replete, is another blossom we’ve been enjoying.  I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to share in the future.

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Posted in My World | 15 Comments »

The Days Are Getting Busier

April 1, 2010

Some of our roses from 2009

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the Glade — the sky was blue and the temperatures were warm.  It was a great day for working out in the yard, which both Betsy and I did in the afternoon.  I’ve got about half of our roses uncovered and trimmed back and I’m happy to report that they all look pretty good so far.  Since I spent so much time working outside today on the roses, I’m sharing a few more from last year in the collage above.

Today (Thursday) Betsy and I are heading over to Hendersonville to help out my parents.  Although they  seem to be fine when we talk to them on the phone, each time we are with them it becomes more obvious that they are quickly reaching the point where they need more than long-distance help.  But it is one thing for us to see that and a completely different thing for them to agree.

We greatly admire their desire to remain independent, but both my sister and I wish we could get them to accept more help.  Until then we will continue to do the best we can to look after them.

We’ll be gone all day today, so I’m going to be even further behind visiting your sites.  But I promise I will get caught up — one of these days!

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Posted in Glade | 12 Comments »

My World: Sempervivum

March 30, 2010

Sempervivum in our yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 28, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

We’re still waiting for Spring to come to the Plateau and stay.  We didn’t have any rain on Monday, but it was still cold and dreary.  We almost have a daffodil in bloom — I think it’s just waiting for some sunshine and warmer weather.

I did notice that our hens and chicks (sempervivum) are coming back to life.  We have several different varieties of sempervivum scattered around the yard and they have different shapes and colors.  The semp pictured above is near our small rose bed, and I like the red tips on this particular hen.

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Posted in My World | 17 Comments »

Spring, Wherefore Art Thou?

March 27, 2010

More of our roses from 2009.

We had three days of beautiful weather earlier in the week, but the last two days have been cold and rainy.  I’ve  started a couple of projects out in the yard, but I haven’t been able to make much progress.  And if this cold weather continues I’m going to need to split more wood and carry it to the garage so my Beautiful Bride will be comfortable in the evenings.

Our crocus have bloomed and are just about completely gone.  Nothing else has begun to bloom.  I will say that the grass is greening up very nicely, so I guess I will have to think about checking out the mower one of these days.

I’ve started to partially uncover the roses.  Most of them are showing signs of new growth and need to be cut back.  I won’t completely uncover the roses until I’m fairly confident that freezing temperatures are behind us.

So while I’m waiting for  Spring to get serious about coming and staying here on the Plateau, I’ll try to stay warm by remembering what the roses looked like last year.

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Posted in Weather | 12 Comments »

My World: Signs of Spring

March 23, 2010

Pickwick Crocus, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 19, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

We had some light snow yesterday (Monday).  It didn’t stick on the ground, but there was a light covering on the roof and deck in the early morning.

In spite of this, we are seeing some signs of Spring here on the Plateau.  The grass is beginning to green up and we have crocus in bloom.  Hyacinths, daffodils and tulips are pushing through the ground, but we’ll have to wait to see any of these in bloom.

In the meantime we’ll just enjoy these cheery blossoms for as long as we can.

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Today I’m very thankful that my Beautiful Bride married me 105 months ago today.

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Posted in My World | 18 Comments »

Working in the Garden

March 20, 2010

Tulips in our garden in 2009.

We’ve had two days of sunshine and blue skies!  We were home yesterday (Friday) so I was able to work out in the yard.  It was wonderful to be able to get my hands dirty in the soil again.  The mail woman brought us some roses that needed to be planted and I was able to get four of them planted.  I have one more spot to fill, which hopefully I will do Saturday.

Our  crocus are now blooming very nicely now.  I took some pictures, but haven’t had a chance to do anything with them.  I’ll post some pictures in the next day or so.  In the meantime you can check out Betsy’s new header on her blog.

The daffodils and tulips are coming up although we don’t have any blooming yet.  For the time being we have to be content remembering our tulips from last year.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Today I’m grateful for the beauty of growing plants.

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Posted in Garden | 12 Comments »

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