Creamy Daffodils

Grateful for cooler (even chilly) weather that is extending the early spring blossoms.

Fading Daffodil

...still lovely in its frailness...

Bumble Bee

Rainy Day Daffodil

First Daffodil and Other News

First and most importantly, our first daffodil bloomed today! I snapped a photo before I went to work. By the time I got home, three more were blooming. I planted about 500 bulbs last fall and am looking forward to watching them bloom for the first time. I haven't found many bulbs planted by previous owners. There is one clump of daffodils by the upstairs front door, and a few crocuses and hyacinths. I do know there are several lilies as well because they were blooming when we moved in last summer. I deliberately did not touch the established flower garden last fall because I wanted to see what would come up this spring before I started digging around and destroying things.


I've confirmed that the fox kits are red foxes. According to this website red fox babies are distinguished from gray fox babies by the white tip on the tail. These kits have the white tail tip. They seem to be doing okay. At the advice of several people I switched to feeding them canned puppy food. I have not yet heard back from of the wildlife rescue despite another phone call.

I will admit that in the corner of my heart I'm still hoping their mom is alive and will come back to them. Very unlikely I know, though. Terry suggested that the mother might be coming back at night. If that is the case, why would she have let three of her babies die in the rain? I did clean up the dead animals in front of the den today (a rabbit, muskrat, and the three dead babies). If new dead animals appear then we will know the parents are still around.

(Note the white tip on the tail.)

(As a side note, picking up dead animals is about my least favorite thing in the whole wide world. Even though I wore gloves and used a shovel for most of the task I still felt totally soiled after the the task was done. I couldn't help wonder why I'm so repulsed by by animal corpses, but not human corpses. When I worked in the hospital, I didn't mind preparing patients' bodies for the family to say goodbye to, then wrapping them for the morgue, the few times we had patients die. It was a quiet, reverent task, a final way to show kindness and respect to the patient. I never felt repulsion, just sadness and respect for the empty body. Even when I had to bury Blackberry and when I buried my chicken a few days ago, the the feeling toward the corpse was one of repulsion--I couldn't touch them with bare hands. I loved both our little kitty and my chicken, but it was hard to take care of them after they died. I don't understand why I have such different emotions... )

We will not be getting the goats after all. This is a sad thing for us, but a happy thing for the owner. The reason she was looking for a new home for them is because her house with five acres is being foreclosed on and she though she would not be able to keep them when she had to move. Happily for her she has found a way to keep them.

Last of all, I start a new job on Monday. Today was my last day of work at my current job (I work for a home care company). While for the most part I liked the job I just left, I was frustrated by the amount of driving I had to do and by the paper charting system. My new job is also in home care, but it is much closer to home and they have a very user friendly computer charting system that will make my life so much easier. I was able to shadow one of their nurses for a day and was very impressed with her ability to get her paper work done. Paperwork is the bane and the downfall of visiting nurses and with the new health care reforms that are coming, I sure the amount of paperwork we will have to do will get larger.

Flowers on the kitchen window sill

These daffodils are a little weird. The cups are so frilly and full of ruffles that the daffodils are very top heavy, they always end up laying flat on the ground in the garden. This is the third year they've bloomed for me, and I still can't decide if I like them or not. I think they are first daffodils I've met that I didn't love at first sight. Though I got to admit, they look a heck of a lot better in a vase on the window sill then they do in the garden.

Forget-me-nots would take over my garden if I let them. They are sure are pretty though and match the blue vases my sister-in-law made for favors at her wedding.

I just love daffodils.

I just love daffodils. Sorry. If you read my blog you'll just have to put up with them.

Daffodils

Is it spring yet?

Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet? Right now I am feeling like a five year old waiting for Christmas morning. It has been a long cold winter and I am excitedly and impatiently waiting for spring. Daffodils blooms are still a long month and a half away, which right now feels like an eternity. But there is hope...in spite of the frigid 20 degrees we had today their little green spikes are showing in the garden.

Daffodils getting ready for Spring.

Spring bulbs

Late fall used to be my least favorite season. My memories of it growing up is lots of hard work and being cold and wet all the time. We heated our log cabin with a fireplace. There are some people (I won't mention any names!) who believe that if it isn't a foot of snow on the ground, you shouldn't be wasting firewood. As a result we rarely had a real winter fire until late November. I never could see the logic in that. When the weather is damp, that is when you need a fire more than any other time. As a result I spent a lot of falls shivering. The only redeeming thing about that time of year when I growing up was the apples and apple cider.

Fortunately I married a man who has the good sense to realize that a fire in the wood stove is appropriate as soon as there is a touch of frost in the air. Now that I am warm and can come inside and get warm if I have been outside all day, I have come to appreciate late fall. In fact, I almost like it as much as I love my favorite season, early spring. The growing season is over, the leaves have fallen and plants have died back. Nature is drawing back into itself, to prepare for a long quiet winter's rest.

Two weekends ago I spent the day outside in the cold and rain and mud (and a couple of snow flurries) planting hundreds of spring bulbs. My spring, summer, and fall project this year was getting rid of the ugly yew bushes that overwhelmed the front of of our little house and putting in flower beds. It has been a long slow project. But today I can happily say, that the project is done. Yes I will need to plant some annuals and perenials next spring. But at least the front of the house will be pretty in April and May. It was a lot of work, from yanking out the tangled stubborn yews (we broke two chains and beat up our Explorer in the process), to shoveling a couple of tons of soil to build up the beds, to building a little rock wall to contain the soil.

I always promptly forget what I planted and even if I label things, I usually end up losing the the labels. So, I am making a list here of what I planted. Maybe in the spring when the flowers bloom, I will remember to come back and look them up.

100 tulip bulbs in every shade of pink, white and purple. This was a mix, so even though the names where on the packages, for most of them I am not sure which ones are what...but maybe I will be able to figure it out come spring.
Shirley
Purple prince
Jan Reus
Don Quichotte
White Dream
Menton (dark pink)
Queen of the night (purple, almost black)
5 greigh tulips "Quebec" (clusters of pink tulips with white on the edges of the petals)

50 grape hyacinths
10 muscari "Blue Spike"

50 tete a tete daffodils (grow six inches tall with single golden trumpet flowers)
5 specie narcissi (5 inches tall with clusters of tiny white blossoms with little yellow trumpets)
5 tezetta narcissi (6 inches tall with clusters of pale yellow trumpet flowers. Somehow I have it in my head that these smell really good. We will find out)
5 triandrus narcissi (14 tall, with clusters of delicate and graceful yellow trumpet flowers)

50 ixiolirion (16 inches tall, with blue flowers and bloom in late May/early Jun. I don't have a clue what these are, but if they bloom in late spring, when the other flowers are done, I'm all for them!)
25 Dutch iris (22 inches tall and bloom in shades of yellow, purple and white in late spring.)