Blending In

While watering the garden at the back of the house this morning something caught my eye…

The Milk Weed by the back porch

In case it’s not obvious in this picture what I saw, here it is again…

The Milk Weed by the back porch

Amazing!!!!!

A gallery is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

All Creatures Great and Small

Visitors seen around the yard today include the habitual doe and her 2 bambis, and some “bugs” on the milkweed plants beside the back porch.

Pond Renovations

Since putting in the ponds nearly 2 years ago it has been a constant battle to keep the water clean. I’d only bought a cheap filter at Menards when first getting this set up, and it became apparent that we needed better to try and keep the water clean. Other measures were needed too, like more area covered by lilies or other vegetation. The water lilies we’d had from Menards were tired and not doing very well.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a new water lily, along with some water lily food, and some chemical to help clear the water. The new lily has done amazingly well, the chemical powder to clear the water was slowly working it seemed, and the olde tired water lilies were responding to being re-potted and actually fed for the first time. But it seemed like we still needed a better water filter. Hours spent searching, researching and reading online came up with the thought that we needed a Bio-Pressure-UV Filter – this has mechanical filtering, bio-filtering, and a UV light to kill algae.

Ebay turned one up for $72 plus shipping, and that arrived yesterday. So after much pondering on just where and how to put it, today was spent digging, organising, piping with bigger pipes than I’d used previously, and generally tidying up.

A couple of pictures show this in progress. There’s still more to tidy up before I take the “finished” pictures…

A view showing the new filter (centre of picture), with the pipe coming up to the top of the spillway in its new trench. The garden to the right is to be a butterfly garden.

Another view of the work in progress, with the mess laying around waiting tidying up.

Yard and Garden 7/7

A few shots taken today in the garden this afternoon, and then this evening from the kitchen window. An update to the water garden, and then a visit from bambis

Yesterday Lisa and I went to Apols Landscaping and oohed and aahed at the amazing selection of water lilies and other aquatic plants they have in an amazing array of ponds, and came home with a water lily, a couple of other plants, some “stuff” to take care of the water with, pellets to feed water lilies with and just for a laugh 5 tadpoles.

So the 2 puny lilies I’ve had for a couple of years got repotted and fed and put into one pond, and the new water lily given a pond of its own, along with the tadpoles and assorted snails that were hangers on.

The new waterlily purchased yesterday. It had 2 blooms yesterday - 3 today.

Then tonight after dinner Lisa looked out the window and a bambi was on the patio right outside the kitchen. By the time I’d got my camera, it had raced off to join its sibling across the lawn, and then Mum turned up.

OK - we're done, and I'm out of here, now follow along...

Tree Trimming

When we moved here in 1998 there were a number of pine trees planted, including a couple “near” the driveway. At first there was about 4′ of grass between the tree and the driveway, but as time passed the tree became wider and wider and wider, to the point where a few years ago I had to cut a small flat on the side of it to keep it a bit clear of the driveway.

Now to today where the tree was now seriously impinging on the driveway. First step – cut what I could reach while standing on the ground.

Partway Done

Now standing on a ladder on the trailer to reach even higher.

The End Result. Hopefully this will hold for a few years, and from now on be a bit easier to keep up with - all the thick branches are cut now.

The UPS driver will be much happier now that he doesn’t have to scrape the side of his truck through this, and then re-adjust the side mirror. A gallery of a few more images is below: Read the rest of this entry »

Behind the Vege Garden

I looked out the kitchen window this morning and “spotted” this scene.

You Just Know that she's saying to the young'un - come back here in a few months and there'll be tomatoes, pumpkins and all sorts of yummy things!!

another “bambi” was off to the left. They left before I could get another photo.

There’s a Fungus Amungus…

I spotted these two growths of a fungus on a couple of dead trees in our yard.

The first image below is 1 of 4 fungi that were growing around the base of this dead box elder tree.

Just above ground level on the dead and slowly rotting remains of a multiple stemmed box elder tree that I cut down a few years ago.

This double layered fungus is on the trunk of another dead tree in the hedgerow on the west side of our property.

Another view - see that the bottom one has caught and is holding water from a recent rain.

Spring Blossoms

The trees are in full bloom at the moment, so I’ve taken a few pictures of some of them to share here.

This tree given to me in August of 2004 at the death of my Mum has amazing blooms this year. Thank You Friends!!!!!

A photo gallery of some pictures is below (click the first (or any) image to open a larger version in a slide show) Read the rest of this entry »

Hailstones – Yikes!!!!

A very intense hailstorm this morning dropped the biggest hailstones I’ve ever seen – still no where near the size that you hear about – golfball size, baseball sized – but yet the noise they made was “impressive” as they hit the roof of the house and banged into the front door as they bounced across the porch.

Spring is Sprung

“Spring is Sprung
The Flowers are Ris
I wonder where
The Birdies Is”

So today is the first day of Spring, and it’s snowing. Yesterday it was 60°F (and for a few days before that too) and today it’s 30°F and snowing.