Muscari Latifolium

Grape hyacinths are one of my favorite spring bulbs. I didn't realize until fairly recently that there are several different varieties of Muscari.. I planted these Muscari latfolium last fall and like them even better than the standard grape hyacinths. From what I have read they are just as easy to grow as other grape hyacinths, and naturalize quickly. They are native to pine barrens in Turkey, so don't mind poor soil, frigid winters and hot dry summers. I really like the bi colored blossoms. The tip can range from varying shades of blue to white, while the lower portion of the flowers are always dark blue.

Next fall I want to get the Delft Blue grape hyacinth collection. 

Field of Purple

Can anyone tell me the name of this little flower? I've never seen it take over a corn field like this before--acres and acres of purple. It is going to be sad to see the corn field plowed.

Bumble Bee

This is the first bumble bee I've seen this year.

Easter Morning

I took these photos on the way to church this morning. Couldn't have asked for  a more beautiful spring morning. Happy Easter to all my readers!

At the Foot of the Cross

(photo taken in the cemetery at St. Joseph's Shrine, another historic site along US 12)

The inscription at the foot of the cross reads:

 "Dedicated July 4th, 1932 in memory of the undaunted faith of the Irish pioneers who's bodies rest in the is hallowed ground, and of Father Gabriel Richard, pioneer missionary, who in 1826 sponsored the building of the Chicago Pike which passes by these sacred premises."

(I googled Father Gabriel Richard's name after seeing this plaque--I knew the name since several Catholic schools in Michigan are named after him, but didn't know any thing about him. It looks like he played quite a part in Michigan history and even founded the school that eventually became the University of Michigan.)

At the end of the day...

 "In Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." -Margaret Atwood.

This has been a cold late spring. I was looking back over my blog posts from last April. Wild violets were blooming April 20th. Tulips were blooming April 19th. Plum trees were blooming April  13th. I took a photo of a spider web on April 6th.  The first daffodil bloomed April 1st.

This year? No tulips yet. The plum trees haven't even begin to think of blooming. I haven't seen a single spider, let alone a spider web. The first daffodil bloomed about a week ago. I've consistently had to wear a winter coat to work all through April. A walk through my woods today revealed the green nubs of may apples starting to emerge and the first red- brown fuzzy leaves of wild geraniums, but no woodland flowers or even flower buds to be seen.

The seeds I planted on March 17th are all sprouting though.  (minus the peas--I saw only one lone pea sprout today). I think that March 17th has been the only really warm day we've had so far this Spring--and that technically wasn't even Spring!

Today was about 50 degrees and sunny--and I had a day off, so I took advantage of the weather and worked in the garden all day.

                          
 

We plowed up new ground for those crops that take a lot of space--pumpkins, corn, and beans.

I planted 36 hills of potatoes--Red Norland, Pontiac Red, and Irish Cobbler. I have 5 pounds of Yukon Gold to plant. Terry wants me to plant some Burbank Russets--I will have to look for seed potatoes for them.

 Many of the seeds I started a few weeks ago will be ready soon for planting out in the garden.

The black austrolourp chicks got a chance to run around outside today. It has been so cold, I've kept them cooped up all the time. They didn't know what to do with themselves with so much space.

My flock of adult hens (which is down to four as of a few weeks ago) is loving the sunshine, and followed me around in the garden for most of day eating all the earthworms.

And there are a few flowers blooming:

Daffodils of course--

Maple tree--

Glory of the snow--

 

Scilla Siberica--



Another Nesting Swan

This is the fourth nesting swan I have seen so far this spring. Amazing what you can see if you just keep your eyes open when driving. It is things like this that make all the driving that I do for my job feel like it is worth while.  I'm hoping I will get a glimpse of some cygnets this spring. I have never seen one before. There are at least  four different ponds that I can look for baby swans on a few weeks from now.  (I just need a better camera...)

El Trabajo Rustico

"It looks like wood … but it’s not. It’s El Trabajo Rustico, which combines Mexican folk art and American rustic art traditions to create “faux bois,” or fake wood. This art form uses cement to create garden benches, small bridges, gazebos and even trees. Southeastern Michigan’s Irish Hills area has one of the largest collections in the Midwest, many of which were skillfully restored by local Hillsdale artisan, Melinda LoPresto."

Yesterday I read this article in the little magazine that our electric company sends out each month...and realized that McCourtie Park is right across the street from one of the patients I was seeing today. So I planned an extra half hour into my day so I could stop and look at the 17 concrete bridges that span the little stream that runs through the park. The light was terrible for taking photos today, but the bridges were so neat I am posting some of them anyway. It was one of those places that makes me wish I had a little child to take there.

Another article that has a little more folklore....http://www.visitlenawee.com/page25.html

Rainbow of Eggs

Yesterday I bought some eggs---even though the last thing I need right now is more eggs. Two other volunteers and I did a photo monitoring shoot on one of the privately owned protected lands for Michigan's Legacy Land Conservancy. The parcel of land we did did the photo monitoring shoot on is a 20 acre woodlot that is part of an 80 acre working farm that was established in 1840.  It was a beautiful woodlot with a floor that is carpeted with spring beauties and trillium. (Neither which were blooming yet, but oh, you could see the hundreds of thousands of plants that were were getting ready to burst into bloom. We made a note to do the next years photo monitoring shoot the first week of May when the flowers will be at their peak.) This is where I saw the almost opened hepatica flower I posted yesterday.

Anyway, the farmer's little daughter had her own flock of hens and sold eggs. For a dollar a dozen who could resist a carton of pretty eggs, even if I have more eggs than I need at home right now? (The eggs from my chickens are white and pale brown.)

First Wild Flower

I saw my first wild flower this morning--a hepatica--in the rain, not quite opened.

On the Edge of Time

Seven years. That is how long it takes for simulated wild ginseng to be ready for harvest. At first glance that sounds like a long time. But is it really?

It has been 12 years since I left my parents home and the unhealthy family dynamics there.
It was seven years from the time I decided I wanted to be a home care nurse and started the process of applying to nursing school to finally working as a home care nurse. 
My husband waited seven years before I finally said yes to marriage.
I don't even know where to begin counting the years I dreamed of having a home I could truly call my own. That dream was realized two years ago when we bought our thirteen acres.

Looking back, seven years seems like a drop in the bucket. Looking forward into the distance, it seems like an eternity. Standing on the edge of time and looking back puts what we can only see in the distance into perspective.

It will be 14 years before our mortgage is paid off. But perhaps in seven or eight years I can start harvesting a crop grown on our own land that can help pay that mortgage off and be steps closer to my ultimate dream of making a living working at home--growing something on my 13 acres.

My husband tells me not to be disappointed if my dreams of eventually working very part time as a nurse don't work out. I tell him that if I hadn't dared to dream I would still be living an isolated life on my parents homestead.

 It is only by dreaming, then taking small steps toward the future, that you can eventually cross the distance to where the future becomes the present moment.

(Ginseng may or may not be part of making that dream come to reality, but the more I research it the more it looks like it might be a viable part of the dream--a good part of our woods looks like it is ideal for growing it. If nothing else, I love growing things and it is a beautiful woodland plant.)


This post is part of 5 minute Fridays over at Gypsy Mama. And it did take longer than five minutes to write because I was interupted in the middle of writing and when I restarted I had lost track of the minutes. Todays prompt is "On Distance."

A photo I took of wild ginseng growing in a lovely forest in upstate New York.

Remnants of a Grist Mill

 Today I stopped at what appeared to be a little roadside park and discovered it is the site of what is left of a historic grist mill with a rich history. The mill was built in the 1800's and burned to the ground in May of 2010. It started as a working grist mill, then was a theater in which internationally advertised plays were performed. More recently it was a restaurant and haunted house--with a history of real ghosts .At the time of the fire, the owners were in the process of turning the mill into a bed and breakfast.

The mill building stood behind this little bridge. Click here for a photo taken a few months before the mill burned to the ground. It looks like Michigan has lost a beautiful old building.

Mystery Rose

My husband bought me a rose bush for Valentine's Day. It was a bare rooted rose that had just started to leaf out, so given that it was the middle of February, I potted it up and tucked it in a cool sunny room, hoping it would make it until I could plant it out in the spring. Well, it grew, budded, and bloomed in the pot and looks very healthy. My only problem is that it was labeled as a pink heirloom rose. It may be an heirloom, but clearly it is not pink. Very pretty non the less, and smells delightful. Now I just need to figure out what kind of rose it really is.

April Sunset

Honey Bee

We finally had a warm April day. I planted pansies this morning which promptly attracted honey bees.

Nesting Swan

A mute swan has decided to nest only a a few dozen yards from a board walk in a nearby nature area. I went to see her for the first time this evening. She kept  her head tucked under her wing the entire half hour I was there. The nest is made of pile of cattails and is at least 5 feet across and would be in a the middle of an inaccessible marsh, if it weren't for the board walk. I didn't see the male any where around. I'm looking forward to checking back frequently and hopefully catching a glimpse of the little swans when they hatch.

Some interesting facts about nesting swans:

The male builds the nest out of reeds and twigs.  Once it is done, the female inspects it and it if she feels it isn't up to code, she will reject it, forcing the male to build her a new nest.

The female can lay up to dozen white or pale green eggs--but most clutches contain an average of six eggs. The eggs hatch 36 days after the last egg is layed. Generally the new family stays close to the nesting site for the first few months after the cygnets hatch.

The nesting swan couple tends to be very aggressive in protecting the nest. Most attacks by swans occur because someone got to close to a nesting site.

The male swan is called a cob, the female is a pen, and the babies are cygnets. The average number of cygnets to survive to adulthood from each clutch is only three. The little swans have many predators, which include snapping turtles, crows, hawks, pike, and perch.



Five Minute Friday--If you were to meet me

(Green Lake, Waterloo Recreational Area, Michigan State Land.)

Sometimes I am amazed that I can do the job I do and actually like it. I knock on the doors of people I've never met before, often in towns I've never heard of before. I ask these people all kinds of personal questions and look them over from head to bare bottoms to toes. What amazes me even more is that these people for the most part like me...and tell me that I come across as kind, thoughtful, and caring--like a nurse ought to be.

See, I was painfully shy as a child and young adult. I'm still quite painfully shy sometimes. In a lot of social situations I still feel very awkward. When meeting new people I still get butterflies in my stomach. I'm really quiet and reserved. I don't share personal information readily. I probably come across as something of a snob--though that isn't what my intention is. I grew up feeling like I had to constantly hide my feelings and thoughts, I still don't open up to people until I get to know them and establish some kind of trust. So if you were to meet me, at first you'd find me very reserved and quiet. Slowly I am becoming more confident and maybe a bit more outgoing--maybe by the time I'm 80 I will be where I want to be.

This post is part of Five Minute Friday--where you write for five minutes flat--just write what first comes to your mind after seeing the prompt.

Rain Drops

In my father's footsteps

Pruning fruit trees is almost an art form
that I learned from my father,
watching as he pruned his apple trees each spring.

With bow saw and felco pruners in hand,
he formed the tangled branches
into an ordered pattern against the sky.

The canvas was prepared
by removing suckers from the base,
and cutting out dead wood and V-crotches.

Then with the hand of a master at his craft
he created an open framework of branches,
so air and light could caress ripening fruit.

A tree pruned by my father
is a thing of simple beauty that I seek
to recreate as I prune my fruit trees in the spring.

Black Australorps

Last Thursday I picked up a dozen black australorp chicks. This a case of "don't count your chickens before they are grown up" though. They are straight run, and I am hoping for at least six hens and one nice rooster out of the batch. Now we just have to keep these chicks safe and healthy so they can grow up.

I was really happy to find them at Tractor Supply, since black australorp was the breed I really wanted when I first got chickens --in fact the first chicks I got in the spring of 2008 where black australorps (I only had them for about a week. We had them in a cage in the garage--a raccoon got its filthy little hands through the wires and pulled each little chick out and ate them all--there was nothing left but beaks and feet.) I was living in town at the time, and this breed seemed like they would make the perfect city chicken. They are gentle, calm, and quiet, and do well in smaller spaces.

They are also cold hardy and excellent egg layers, routinely laying through the the winter. The hens do tend to go broody, though, and make good mothers. They are large birds, with the hens weighing seven to eight pounds. (Compare that to my California white hens who weigh about four pounds.)

 The roosters are supposed to be gentle giants. Their spurs are short and blunt instead of long and sharp, like a lot of roosters.  From what I have read they will protect the hens like they are suppose to, but won't go hunting humans down and don't go out of their way to attack unless they feel their hens are in danger. (I just gave away my two Silver laced wyandotte roosters last week. They were stunningly beautiful birds, but it was getting to the point where I was putting on goggles and felt like I needed a suit of armor to collect the eggs. I was able to find someone who raises silver laced wyandottes who was looking for roosters to go with his flock of hens. I am really happy that they went to a good home, where they will be useful, instead of being turned into stew.) Australorp roosters are pretty plain looking--solid black and stocky. But that is better than being attacked multiple times a day!

A few of my favorite things

(frost crystals on a a crocus flower)

A few of my favorite things that are right outside my door--

frost on spring flowers,

birdsong in the early morning,

starlit skies on a dark country night,

spring peepers peeping in the pond down the road,

vegetable seedlings sprouting on my window sill,

fluffy new baby chicks....

these are a few of my favorite things.
(What can I say, it is the little country things that make my heart sing.)

(black australorp chicks--2 days old--the newest addition to our flock)

This post is part of five minute Fridays over at gypsy mama.