Posts Tagged ‘Glade’

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Periwinkle in Our Yard

April 4, 2009

periwinkle09033001

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that our house is on the side of a hill with a lot of trees around.  And although there are lots of advantages to such a location there are also some disadvantages.  Two of the disadvantages are erosion and places where grass won’t grow.  In our case the two places often coincide, especially in the back and on the uphill side of the yard.

But three or four years ago we hit upon a solution to some of our problems.  The lot below ours is vacant and we noticed a lot of periwinkle growing in it.  So we transplanted some into one  of our problem areas.

It’s been slow, but the picture above shows how things looked earlier this week.  The periwinkle has spread to cover the area where the grass wouldn’t grow and to at least cover an area of erosion.

The pretty blue flowers of the periwinkle are a sign that spring has arrived.  And since it’s spreading I have a little less lawn to mow.  And believe me, at my age every little bit of hillside yard that doesn’t need to be mowed is an advantage!

periwinkle09033102We have several small areas of periwinkle that we are encouraging to spread.  In the meantime we enjoy the beauty they provide.

The picture at the right is a close up of the flowers of our periwinkle.

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Posted in Glade | 24 Comments »

It Looks Like Spring

April 2, 2009

2009-garden

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day here on the Plateau.  After doing our weekly grocery shopping in the morning, both Betsy and I worked out in the yard during the afternoon.

It really is beginning to look and feel like Spring around the house.  It was almost too warm for a long-sleeved shirt.  The grass is now almost completely green (and needs mowing!), tulip buds are starting to show some color, and the roses are showing new growth.

But the stars of the yard yesterday were the daffodils.  We have several different varieties in bloom.  The collage above (which can be enlarged for better viewing) shows the daffodils we currently have in bloom.

Isn’t spring wonderful?

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Posted in Garden | 16 Comments »

Whose Golf Course Is It?

March 21, 2009
Deer behind our house. March 20, 2009.

Deer behind our house. March 20, 2009.

Betsy and I have become accustomed to seeing deer on the golf course behind our house.  They usually come by in the late afternoon, and although they have enjoyed a few bites while we watched them, they are usually quite skittish and will quickly run off if golfers come by or dogs start barking.

But yesterday we saw six deer who behaved very differently.  They came down the fairway (nothing unusual about that) and started grazing behind the house.  After a few minutes they all looked up and stared at the tees further down the hill.  Two golfers had driven up to the tee in their cart and were preparing to tee off.  We expected the deer to take off, but they just stood there watching .  The golfers teed off (without hitting any of the deer) and slowly drove past them.

The deer went back to grazing and then the smallest deer laid down on the fairway.  That was definitely different from anything we had seen before.  After a few minutes another one laid down.  Now we were really intrigued!

After a while a neighbor’s dog started barking, but instead of running off into the woods the deer moved closer to the tee.  Soon all of them were lying down.  I’m not sure how long they rested, but after a while they got up one by one.  Shortly afterward they disappeared into the woods.

As I said, we’ve never seen deer act like that before.  Maybe they knew the golfers were through for the day.  Or maybe they just thought they owned the golf course.  In either case I’m glad I could get the pictures above.  The collage can be enlarged by clicking on it.

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Posted in Glade | 20 Comments »

We Have Daffodils in Bloom!

March 19, 2009

Daffodils in bloom under our dogwood tree. March 18, 2009.

Daffodils in bloom under our dogwood tree. March 18, 2009.

We had another bright beautiful day on the Plateau, and we were rewarded with a small bed of daffodils in bloom.  There is something especially enjoyable about seeing those bright yellow blossoms.  They seem to promise that Spring has really arrived.

These daffodils are in one of the small beds we rebuilt last fall.  We have more daffodils in other beds that haven’t bloomed yet, but that’s alright. We now have something to look forward to each morning when we go out to walk the lawn.  In the background of the pictures you can see one of our rose beds.  Unfortunately we’ll have to wait a couple of months before we see any blossoms in that bed.

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Before Betsy and I went to Arkansas I received this award from my friends Antigoni in Greece and Tarolino in Finland.  I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate the thoughtfulness of both of them.

I’m supposed to nominate blogs that I love that haven’t received the award.  But I’m still trying to get caught up from our time away from the computer and am not sure who received the award while we were gone.  So, if you haven’t received this award and I’ve visited your blog this week, I pass it on to you because I love your blog.

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Posted in Garden | 22 Comments »

My World # 22

March 17, 2009
Crocus Pickwick, Fairfield Glade. March 16, 2009.

Crocus Pickwick, Fairfield Glade. March 16, 2009.

When we got home from Arkansas we were pleasantly surprised to find most of the crocus in our large flower bed in bloom.  When we left there were only a couple of lonely survivors at the front of the house in bloom.

Unfortunately we’ve had rain almost constantly since we’ve been home, so most of the blossoms are pretty bedraggled.    I did manage to get the picture above, but that’s about it.

If we get some sunshine in the next couple of days we should have many daffodils in bloom around the yard.  Then we can really feel that Spring has arrived.

The rain has made it difficult to work outside, but I’ve gotten outside a few times.  Since we live on a hillside, there are a couple of places in our yard that are difficult to mow, so I’m planting some sempervivum (hens and chicks) that Dad gave us in the more difficult places.  Hopefully in a year or two they’ll spread and we won’t have to worry about mowing in those spots.  We have quite a bit of sempervivum growing in rock gardens and we really like the way it looks.

This is my entry for My World Tuesday, a weekly meme of pictures from around the world.  To see more pictures from around the world, or to join and post your own pictures, click HERE.

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Posted in My World | 27 Comments »

Our First Promise of Spring

March 7, 2009
The first blossom in our yard. March 7, 2009.

The first blossom in our yard. March 7, 2009.

The past couple of days have been very pleasant up here on the Plateau.  The weather has warmed and I was even able to work outside without a jacket yesterday.  That’s good because I certainly have plenty to do in the yard after our fairly hard winter.  In addition to  general clean up, I also have some new roses that need to be planted.  So I’ve been  outside quite a bit over the past two days.

Yesterday, while working with the roses in the front of the house, I found the crocus shown in the picture above.  It’s our very blossom of the year.  Actually it looks a little forlorn and lonely.  This is a crocus my father gave us when we first bought the house.  It’s located up against the south side of the house, so it gets more sun than any other part of our yard.  The little bed it’s in is a favorite tunneling route for our many chipmunks, so most of the bulbs that were originally planted there have long since disappeared.

But this little plant has bravely hung on.  And in so doing it has given us our first promise of spring.

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Posted in Garden | 21 Comments »

The Glade is Deer to Us

March 5, 2009
Deer on the golf course behind our house. March 3, 2009.

Deer on the golf course behind our house. March 3, 2009.

Tuesday afternoon Betsy called to me to get my camera and come into the living room.  There were deer on the golf course behind our house.

I know Betsy told you about the deer in her blog of Wednesday morning and she used some of the pictures we took.  But I couldn’t resist playing around with Picasa and making the collage above.  Picasa has been one of the nice bonuses of our new computers.

The weather has finally moderated here and I was able to get some work done in the yard yesterday afternoon.  I got two roses planted — Spellbound and Radiant Perfume.  They’re replacements for two roses that didn’t survive our two-year drought, so they don’t  change the varieties we have.  I have some other roses that need to be planted, so I hope the weather continues to be mild.

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Posted in Glade | 18 Comments »

My World # 22

March 2, 2009

new-roses

This is my entry for My World.  Last week over 100 people shared views of their part of the world through this meme.  To join, or to see more pictures from around the world, click HERE.

My World today is COLD, and the forecast is that things will stay that way for at least one more day.  I’m ready for the cold weather to end.

In order to have something more pleasant to think about, I experimented with PIcasa, which we have started using with our new computers.  I made the collage above of some of the roses in our yard.  The collage shows Sweet Freedom and Wildfire on the left, Perfect Moment in the middle, Memorial Day on the top right, and Rio Samba and Mister Lincoln on the bottom right.  The picture can be expanded to get a better view.

Hopefully all of these roses will again grace our yard once the weather warms up with their beauty and fragrance.  I can hardly wait.

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Posted in My World | 35 Comments »

Do They Know Something I Don’t Know?

February 23, 2009

frontdoorroses

I was surprised to find the box in the picture above leaning against the front door Saturday afternoon.  Betsy and I were busy working with our new computers and we didn’t even hear the mailman come to the front door.

I recognized the box as soon as I saw it — I didn’t even have to read the name.  I’ve been a customer of Jackson & Perkins for many years, and I knew that we had just gotten a bare-root rose which we ordered for our garden this year.  The reason I was surprised is that Jackson & Perkins does a good job of getting roses to the customer at the proper planting time.  And quite frankly, I was expecting to be planting roses anytime soon!

Rose Spellbound, Fairfield Glade. June, 2006.

Rose Spellbound, Fairfield Glade. June, 2006.

This rose, Spellbound,  is a replacement for a plant we’ve had in our garden.  The picture at the right shows Spellbound in 2006, the year we planted it.  But two years of drought had reduced it to a single blossom on a weak stem last year.  Since we like Spellbound when it’s healthy, we decided to try again with a new plant.

So I was delighted with this sign from Jackson & Perkins that spring is near.  The only problem is that we got the rose Saturday afternoon and it snowed Saturday night!  Oh, well, at least Betsy was happy.

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Posted in Garden | 27 Comments »

Skywatch Friday # 32

February 19, 2009
Sunset in Fairfield Glade. February 8, 2009.

Sunset in Fairfield Glade. February 8, 2009.

This is my entry for Skywatch Friday.  Last week over 300 people from around the world shared their views of the sky.  To see more sky pictures, or to join the fun and join, click HERE.

Earlier this month I took my walk a little later than I usually do and captured the sunset above.  I usually view the sunset from the 14th tee of the golf course, but this picture was taken from the first tee.  This fairway is not quite as wide as the 14th and it is more level so the trees appear more numerous, but the sky is as glorious as ever.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 36 Comments »

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