Posts Tagged ‘Yard’

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Our World: Signs of Autumn

October 11, 2011

The dogwood tree in our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 3, 2011.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

One of the first signs of Autumn in our yard is the red leaves on our dogwood tree after the season’s first cold spell.  As you can see, the trees behind the dogwood tree haven’t started to turn yet.

Red dogwood leaves against a blue sky, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 2, 2011.

I like the way the sunlight brings out the red of the leaves.  I think these leaves look especially beautiful against the blue sky.

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Posted in Our World | 21 Comments »

Down Memory Lane: Day Lilies in Our Yard (2008)

September 8, 2011

I was going through some of my archives, and came across pictures from 2008 of the day lies we have in our yard.  Since we missed many of our day lilies this year because of our western trip, I was glad to come across these pictures.

To see larger versions of these pictures and others, click HERE.

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My Blogging Muse has become about as dry and unproductive as our yard and garden, so Betsy and I have decided to take a blogging break.  I’m not sure what (if anything) we’ll do other than trying to keep our roses and other plants alive.  If my Muse cooperates, I’ll be back the last week of September.

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Posted in Garden | 19 Comments »

Our World: Unexpected Beauty

September 6, 2011

Blatant Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. August 31, 2011.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

This has been a very strange year on the Cumberland Plateau.  We had an unusually wet spring, followed by an extremely hot and dry summer.  We had only a trace of rainfall in all of July and August.  The lawn and gardens show the stress of such hot, dry weather.

But, in spite of this, we’ve had iris blooming fairly consistently since April.  We have several that are supposed to bloom twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall.  But the irises in our front flower bed just keep  blooming (that’s not a complaint).

Late last week our Blatant Iris sent up another flower stalk.  The stalk isn’t as tall as they usually are, but the blossom is still pretty.

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My World: Day Lilies in Bloom

August 2, 2011

Spanish Glow Day Lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 25, 2011.

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.

Betsy and I missed the blooming of most of the lilies and day lilies in our yard because of our trip last month.  But some day lilies are continuing to bloom, and we are enjoying their bright refreshing colors during this hot spell we’re enduring.

All of these day lilies are in our new flower bed along the road, and this is the first time they’ve bloomed for us.  The day lily above is Spanish Glow.

Carlotta Day Lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 5, 2011.

Carlotta is the reddest of our day lilies.

Wild Horses Day Lily, Fiarfield Glade, Tennessee. June 30, 2011.

Wild Horses only had one blossom while we were home, which made it difficult to get a good picture.  But I did like the color.

Elegant Candy Day Lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 5, 2011.

Elegant Candy Day Lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 5, 2011.

Elegant Candy has a pretty — dare I say, elegant — pastel color.

Fooled Me Day Lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 25, 2011.

We weren’t sure that Fooled Me was going to bloom this year, but it did come through and shared its bright colors with us.

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My World: Before the deer came to lunch

July 12, 2011

Lollypop Lilies, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 29, 2011.

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Note:  This was written before my mother passed away, but did not get posted.  I decided to post it today.

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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 usually don’t have much trouble with deer, although there are plenty of them around the Glade.  We often see them on the golf course behind our house or in  the vacant lot below our house.  But they usually stay away from our house because we use Liquid Fence to discourage them from lunching on our flowers.

Usually, but not always.  We’ve had a very hot and dry May, and for some reason the deer appear to be more active because of the unusual weather.  We have seen them about in the middle of the afternoon, while we normally see them in the early evening.

The picture above shows our Lollypop lilies (and a Veteran’s Honor rose) in the flower bed nearest the road.  The picture was taken last Sunday — the deer came to lunch on Tuesday while we were running errands.  I didn’t have the heart to take an ‘after’ picture.

New rose bed in front of our house. May 29, 2011.

Here’s another view of the buffet the deer enjoyed.  They left the purple iris you see on the left, but munched on the roses, lilies and day lilies.  The roses will come back, and the day lilies should bloom in the fall (if we can keep the deer away).  We’ll just have to wait until next year to enjoy the lilies.

I never thought Bambi would do such a thing!

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My World: I Promised Her a Rose Garden

May 17, 2011

Roses in front of our house, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 13, 2011.

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.

I promised Betsy a rose garden about five years ago, when my job ended and I retired.  That first year we planted some roses in a flower bed we had built at the side of the house.  It quickly became apparent that that location was too shady for roses, and so we built new flower beds in front of the house, which is the sunniest part of our yard.

The picture above, which Betsy took on Friday, shows how well I’ve kept my promise.  You can see three rose beds (one near the road in the foreground, and one on each side of the driveway near the house.  In addition we have roses in containers along the sides of the driveway.

We have a total of 57 rose bushes — 55 different varieties.  All are hybrid teas or grandifloras.  We have roses of just about every color imaginable, and many of are also fragrant.  A beautiful rose that has a delightful fragrance is about as perfect as anything can be.

Crescendo Rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 14, 2011.

The rose above, Crescendo, is one of our new roses for this year.  The light wasn’t very good (it had been raining) when I took this picture on Saturday, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to snap away.

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My World: Blossoms to Welcome Us Home

May 10, 2011

Our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 7, 2011.

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.

Betsy and I came home to a yard full of color, thanks to the wet Spring we had here on the Plateau.  The grass was green, the iris were still blooming (they had started before we left for the beach), the azaleas in the front yard were putting on a show, and the roses were full of buds and blossoms.  All in all it was a beautiful welcome home.

Both of these pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them, but if you do that please don’t look too closely.  The grass desperately needs to be mowed.  I guess that’s my welcome home.

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My World: Iris in Bloom

April 26, 2011

Honey Glaze Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 22, 2011.

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 were down to one lonely tulip in the front yard, but then the iris started blooming and we are once again enjoying beautiful blossoms.  The first iris to bloom was Honey Glazed, which is shown above.

Blatant Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 22, 2011.

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite, but this one — Blatant — would certainly be in the running.

Clarence Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 23, 2011.

Another iris that is blooming is Clarence.

All three of these are re-blooming iris, so if Mother Nature cooperates we’ll have another show in October.

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Posted in My World | 21 Comments »

Dogwood Winter

April 14, 2011

Dogwood blossoms, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2011.

Last weekend we had near-record high temperatures.  The temperature Friday was over 80°, which is more like the highs in July rather than April.  Monday and Tuesday we had the heat on and a fire in the fireplace.

Such is Dogwood Winter.  Dogwood Winter is a cold spell following warm weather that occurs as the dogwood trees are blooming.  Our dogwood tree is in fact blooming as you can see from the photo above.  We can only hope that Dogwood  Winter is nice and short.

Dogwood blossom, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 21, 2011.

The blossoms of the dogwood tree are in fact very beautiful.  It’s a shame that the name of this pretty tree got associated with a stretch of cold weather.

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It’s Beginning to Look Like Spring

March 24, 2011

Fortissimo Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 20, 2011.

It’s beginning to look more and more like Spring on the Cumberland Plateau.  We’ve enjoyed some beautiful weather over the past few days, and flowers are beginning to bloom profusely.

We’ve had some yellow daffodils blooming for several days, but now some of our other daffodils are blooming as well.  The daffodil above is Fortissimo.  The petals are yellow, but the trumpet is orange.  It’s a fairly large blossom.

Chromacolor Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 21, 2011.

Chromacolor also has an orange trumpet, but it is much shorter than the one on Fortissimo.  Chromacolor’s petals are a showy white.  Both of these daffodils happily proclaim that Spring has sprung!

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