The Wander-er

 I have a lot of catching up to do. 

This week we had ice on Monday, snow and sleet on Wednesday. Charlie and I headed out in the morning to visit the Forest/Rock Garden. I've finally figured out that this little place is perfect for tall shade plants, but it takes a lot of work

The old Christmas Chair. I may decide to bring that back to the house for next year. The seat is split and it is very weathered, just how I like it. Right now, it is on a tiny rock bluff that overlooks the neighbor's woods west of us.

The photo below is of the Buckthorn Woods. The trees are horrible and invasive, but have been there for nearly 20 years or so. The deer love being in there. I put my trail camera back up after having it in another spot for the last few months.
It generally picks up deer napping right in front of the camera. The trail here is used by all woodland creatures.

Our neighbor and plow guy came Thursday morning and cleaned up our place. He sent another fella out to sand our hill and in front of the house. I am grateful that he agreed to plow for us this winter. It sure took a lot of worry off my mind. 

Charlie and I headed out for a mile walk. For a little dog, he has a lot of energy that needs to be spent. I'm trying to keep track of how far I hike right now just out of curiosity.

This particular day, I only hiked one mile of hills and the creek. The snow was soft and mushy and would have clumped up in ice chunks under my snowshoes. The workout was worth the effort.

Now I'm trying something a bit different and I am not exactly sure if this is the best method. I need to know from the readers if this is interesting or not....
this ends up being something like 23 seconds. It is sort of fun and funky.
I downloaded a trial of Corel Video Studio after trying several time to get MovieMaker from Microsoft which used to be free. 
Now they want a monthly fee or yearly fee. 

I have been taking a few more videos with my Olympus camera and thought this might work for mixing panorama videos of areas with some photos. Meh. I'm not too sure about it.

I don't always want to watch a video when reading blogs, but this seems to be the new-ish trend. I can see where learning the program could be fun with more creative ideas.

I did a lot more Wandering this week. I hiked back to the Lost Valley, Hidden Valley, or The Back Valley which is a 3 mile snowshoe trek on Friday. I haven't been back there in over a year.

That was a neat discovering adventure. Saturday I wandered the west bank of the Kickapoo River and found some amazing sites.

Those updates will come later. 

I am finding my winter groove in Exploring and it brings me so much peace.

Let me know how you feel about the vid. I have a LOT to learn, but during those long cold dreary days of winter, it could be a new creative skill to learn.

Have a Great Sunday.

Weekend weather

Saturday morning I awoke to a beautiful snowfall coming down. If this had been November instead of April, I would have been out rejoicing like a child.

Hey, even I can get tired of winter eventually!

By one in the afternoon the snow had disappeared and left behind a soggy mess of muck. I skipped my daily walk and went around the yard picking up sticks. 

The daffodils and tulips I'd planted 20 some years ago were poking their tips out of the grass where my large flower garden once stood. They needed to be dug up and separated for them to flower decently. 

I grabbed a shovel and stuck it into the grass around one clump. The frost was out of the ground and I could dig them up.

I knelt in the wet grass and carefully pulled daffy bulbs apart. I filled an old kettle with them and then wondered where in the heck I was going to put all of them.

Some bulbs were of good size and some were tiny. I walked to the east fence line. They might grow well there and be a cheery sight to anyone coming down our driveway. They'd die back by the time I needed to mow or let Sven the goat graze in the area.

Hubby and I always disagree on flower beds. He believes they are a waste of time and a pain to mow around. I think most of the yard should be full of flowers. I remember the first spring I lived here and was so surprised to see peonies coming up.

Hubby said he just mowed them down. I moved them to safe places where the mower can't go.

Yesterday I took a kettle full of daffodils and planted them in the 'Forest Garden'. It starts out sunny but as the leaves fill in, the place becomes a shaded garden. Last year I found that Hostas do well there [if the deer don't eat them] along with Ajuga and Vinca. I planted tiny transplants in the crevices of the rocks last year to see if they'd survive the winter.

They did! Under all the leaves and sticks they are still thriving!

I will litter the shaded garden with begonias this year for color and some violets. Time will tell and after some more research I may find other plants to add.

I am waiting to see if the ferns made it through the winter. If they did, I'll add some more from the surrounding forest. If not, well it is obvious that the area isn't good for them.

I did get in an early morning walk on Sunday and we found a huge area of Skunk Cabbage appearing near the creek.

See who I found in a Skunk Cabbage?

At the Big Spring I found one Marsh Marigold that looked like it had been bitten by frost.
The other plants were up and had buds on them.

So it seems spring is headed our way.

Whatever happened to the....

Forest Garden I tried to create?

Well, there were some failures and some successes. None of the flower seeds I purchased for shade came up at all. But then that may not be my fault as I planted them elsewhere and they didn't come up there either. 
I'm on a search for some better seeds for next year.

The Begonias in ground did well, they didn't grow terribly large, but they were the best survivors of the things I did plant. 

The transplant of Comfrey did well also. I took some hostas out to the forest garden and some were nibbled by deer. I expected that but had no other place to put those extra hostas. 

Other successful transplants were vinca and so did the Bugleweed or Ajuga! I may move some more next spring as long as I see it survives winter.

The center area did have grass grow in it! Yippee, I did find out that deer normally do not eat grass as they are browsers. That is why they love gardens so much. Also, this solves the riddle of why the creek has so much beautiful green grass most of the winter and no one ever eats it.

My grumpy tree guy needed some sprucing up. I took out some fake flowers to pretty up my personal Forest Space. After all, I am the only one aside from kids that visit that go there. 

I added flowers here. This is the first thing a person/kid would see walking into the space. The green Alien was left by Briar, one of my young pals.

One of my favorite dragons. I've had this dragon for two years now.

He/she will come in when the weather turns to be part of my indoor decorations.

It is small enough to come inside.

The begonias happened to be the big success story. The orange cosmos did flower but the plants are pretty wimpy. These however looked great in the cracks of the large rock formation.

This is my spot with a stump for an adult beverage or a hot chocolate. The wooden chair has generally been part of my Christmas Decorations so I'll bring that in and wash it up before the snow flies.

Meanwhile...

time for a chat...

Tiny Bear makes a Predator Hellhound sit up 

and beg for a cookie.

Dude, what kind of cool helmet is that?

I stole mine from a Star Wars Action guy.

Buck says to Doe. 

You know, sometimes I'm not so sure I 

feel truly safe out in these woods!

Yes, these things happen when I have to sit all day and wait for a med delivery for hubby. I can't go far from the house. I can hear Tom's UPS truck on the ridge. He usually is late. I think we are near the end of his route. 

Flowers. I like them.

Hen & Chicks

Above is a birthday gift from a very thoughtful neighbor. Over the years she has added some amazing florals to my porch and garden. I've always admired this sort of set up for hen and chicks, but always passed as I thought it was too expensive.

I have several hen and chicks growing in log crevices and on rocks. This one is like a beautiful center piece.

My neighbor professes to have a brown thumb. Indeed she sort of does, but she has a wonderful eye for adding to my collection of flowers. Last year a lavender plant showed up on my stump with a note when my MIL died. 

Another year some beer and Gerbera Daisies showed up.

Flowers have a way of making me smile. My Grandmother Pearl loved flowers. Grandpa only let her have a small area for her flowers. She managed to have the most incredible flower garden in a tiny space. 

Moon flowers were my favorite. I have yet to grow some of those.

At one time I disliked geraniums. But my MIL always had a wonderful mix of them on her porch or later on her balconey. I'd cut the spent flowers for her and learned to have an appreciation for them. 

This year I have 3 colors of geraniums. I potted some exotic pink ones in an old pot I inherited from her balconey.

White ones in an old galvanized pail that was used to collect maple syrup by my father in law's dad.

For me this year, the flowers have it. I can be close to the house yet still outside working in the tiny gardens and watering those flowers in containers on the porch.

The Hen and Chicks I moved to the Forest Garden are doing well!

I couldn't resist a bit of playing around in the woods. The shade is nice and the breezes were warm but tolerable.

I didn't plan on a moderate drought this year, so hauling water daily to water my seedlings is an extra chore, but one I don't mind.

I had to put some 'fake' flowers in the basin of the Old Man's head. Real flowers would have withered away in this wind and heat.

In a way, I am happy that I didn't decide to do a large veggie garden this year. The lack of rain and the heat would have made the work much more intense.

My garden this time last year:

It was rather impressive. 

Rich keeps telling me that he will till it. But he has forgotten that the tiller is partially broken and lives at the neighbor's house now. My neighbor has tilled for us for the past 4 years.

I just don't have the heart to ask him to do it for us in this heat.

At least if we do get some tilling done. The garden will be much smaller but I will reserve an area for Zinnias and other colorful flowers to admire. 

If it were left up to me, I'd have flowers and plants to work with every day.

I have such a hard time resisting all of those bright colors.

Have a wonderful Monday.

My June week is filled to the brim with fun and exciting activities.

Ahem.

Who am I kidding?

It looks to be awfully hot and icky this week with a chance of humidity, clouds, maybe some rain, and chance of viewing a partial eclipse of the sun on Thursday!

Flowers....I just love them!

This and that

 

Charlie sunbathes in the Forest Garden.

It isn't that obvious of a garden quite yet. There are little places here and there that have flowers, a bucket, an old chair, and pieces of strange and random looking wood.

The sun shines through the canopy and offers sun dappled areas that move with the sun.

There are small areas of surprises here and there. One has to look for them.

The transplanted ferns are doing well and the flower seeds of different varities are coming up here and there. I'll be putting in some shade wildflowers in the next few days and will enjoy the surprise of color if I get that.

The garden is in the middle of the forest mule pasture. I do know that the mules and deer share trails but generally they keep their distance. I've caught mules and deer in the same large open pasture on the trail camera, but almost never have they been together in close proximity in the woods. 

Here are a couple of crappy shots of the cosmos and other flowers coming up in the Forest Garden.

Those tiny toys are markers for where I have planted seeds. In a week or so, I should be able to safely move them out. Maybe the dragons and unicorns like it in the forest though....

Not a great shot, but there are two green bean plants coming up! This is an experiment that probably won't work well. 

My husband [and probably others] question my sanity about doing this. The area won't really be a Garden in the orderly sense of the word, but a mix of plants and flowers to relax and gaze at in unexpected places in the middle of a forest.

And as it was pointed out to me, the deer and other wildlife could destroy it in one fell swoop.

So be it. For now it is a fun project. 

My veggie garden will be reduced this year to what I can manually dig up. Corn, beans, lettuce, and carrots. These are the main things I freeze or dry for the winter. I will purchase tomatoes if I want them and other veggies at the Farmer's Market this year.

I'm concentrating just once on flowers and fun for the summer.

Have a great and wonderful start to your June.

Heading out for m Birthday Hike. 

Hoping for a bit of awesome fun on the trail. 

My morning rush hour: