Category Archives: Our Trees

Spring Plant Profile

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Our trees, etc:

Autumn Flame Maple – 3 : blooming
October Glory Maple – 1: nearing readiness to bloom
Weeping Willow – 1: leafed out and getting longer
Apple: 3: waiting until April
Yoshino Cherry – 3: getting ready to bloom soon
Cherokee Chief Dogwood – 2: getting ready to open blooms
The mystery tree we forgot the name of – 1: blooming and leafing out
Various other little trees are starting to grow and put leaves out, no blooms on them.

Pussy Willow bush is ready to go, but isn’t yet.

Peony bushes are pushing up their burgundy spikes still.

Hostas are pushing up their purpleish spikes now too.

Iris – several plants – are growing more again

Lambs Ear – 1: is getting new growth going and extending itself further

1 unknown bulb is putting up leaves, but don’t know what it is. (it’s never flowered in previous years, it’s something left from something I planted there a few years ago that never did anything)

In my herb garden the two varieties of Thyme there are growing more, the Spring Thing! I gave them a hair cut the other week as well.

BeeBalm is getting a bit more spunky, expect it to start growing upwards again soon.

Chives are getting spunky too, starting to put out bigger greener Springy tubes.

That’s not all, there is more, but those are the main plants. It’s Spring!

Spring! Signs everywhere!

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It’s a lovely day so far. It’s supposed to be up to around 61 degrees F. The sun is shining. Spring is in the air.

I forgot to post this exciting news the other day. Victoria were on the deck the other day sorting through some Thyme I’d cut out of my herb garden (hair cuts for Thyme plants). I heard an odd sound, an odd bird sound, garbly trilly odd. I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t tell if there was something over this or that way making the noise, in trees or something. She pointed to the east. I squinted my eyes, Ah there it is!

A huge V of geese flying due North at a nice clippy pace. The first sign of Spring Migration!

It was a euphoric site and had me on high excitement levels for quite awhile.

In other news, the Weeping Willow tree is looking very dotty green. It’s fronds are long yet, not at all, but she’s a-puttin them out and from a distance you can see those green things coming out. It’s beautiful. I fear she’s too early though. We have a few weeks to go before the probably “last freeze”. In fact, in the next 15-days forcast Accuweather is calling for many nights down to 32, 31, 29. It’s not that which will be a problem, most likely, but it’s the fact that in the last couple of days they did have “ice storm” maybes in the forcast. They’ve gone away from the forcast, but could come back.

In the greater Atlanta area there are many trees starting to bloom. Cherry trees, or something like them, not the kind we have (ours bloom into March or so –Y. Cherries) and a few others. Maybe they aren’t cherry trees, but they look like the K. kind (I can’t recall the names to spell them out, so figure out the Y and K please yourselves ;) )

Today I saw a Bluebird looking at the nest box. I need to relocate that box. Last year it was nothing but bad stuff for them there. As well, today there were E. Starlings on the fence by the bird box. They were bothering the Bluebirds, of course. Going out I just have to clap and yell a second or two and the Starlings fly away, but the Bluebirds stay. :) I can’t watch them every moment of the day though :(

So I need to get a pole to mount the box on in another place in the yard. Frank, mark that down. :) You are the pole buyer. ;)

I would also like a new big bird feeder … mine fell over in a storm last year and started to crumble, not worth the fixing. So I have no nice feeder. I also would like a few more Hummer Feeders, through different things all but one is broke now. Just my nice one is around for now. It’s delicate, blown glass shaped like a long tubular flower. It’s a piece of art really. It’s not a “filler-er-up” many times in a month type. I like the feeders that have many stations on them. So this artsy one is not for that, it’s a one-at-a-timer.

We were in Bass Pro Outlet last night, they have some nice single Hummer Feeders … made out of all kinds of glass bottles and copper and such twisted around them to hold them up, very pretty decorations on them, big old decorative Hummer Feeders all in themselves! But single feeders — pricey too. $19 and up. :(

I’m doing some work on my “herb garden” here and there. I really want to get it in good shape, get more plants in it, and a nice brick border, or a short picket fence around it. It’s a battle keeping the creeping weedy grasses out of it. So the Mantis needs to come out of the garage and do some work for me. Edging first, then cultivation between “rows” to loosen the dirt, get rid of little springy weeds, then I get get in there and do the hefty stuff easier, tidying up and hopefully getting a mulch to put on the dirt, and as I said before, more plants. I have Bee Balm and 3 kinds of Thyme, and Chives that are perennials that are doing alright. I also have two other plants in there that are not “herbs” but are nice butterfly attracters. Purple Cone Flower, and a Giant — I forget it’s name. Both die back to the ground in the winter. The herbs don’t die back, the Thyme keeps plugging away winter long, and the chives scale back but don’t go away, same with the Bee Balm.

I may only have 2 types of Thyme now. I recall that one of the 3 is “Wooly Thyme” and may be under some weeds in the corner, or vanished … or may come back in some small way that I can work with. I also have English Thyme and German Thyme. My English is more leggy and loose –mild smell; the German is more bushy and thick–more smell to it too.

The Peonies out front have continued to put up their first shoots out of the ground. They should be super duper huge this year, and I need to put out supports for them for sure. Frank, take note– I need stakes and garden string! :)

Ice Storm Cometh

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Brrr. It’s cold again. It was so nice the last couple of days. I was wearing a summer dress yesterday. Day before too. Now it’s back to BRRRR!

There is a Winter Storm Warning for our area. Should be rain coming later today, and with plummenting temperatures, Ice or Sleet or a Mix, and maybe Snow or Flurries. That should be all mostly on Saturday. Sunday it’s supposed to be in the mid-40′s.

This morning in bed I had the Weather Channel on and the temperature was going lower and lower. It was so warm most of the night, then whomp! It started going down. Other areas around here, to the east, in NC and SC were even lower temperatured, since the dew point was in the single digits there, but by us it was in the 20′s. That’s the difference in how cold or hot some other place may be in comparison to another place.

Currently it’s 34 degrees F. Feels like 27 degrees F. Dew Point is at 1 degree. See, it went down, so did our temps and feel’s like temps. Humidity is at 25. Dry as a bone cold.

Sure it’s colder up North in other places. So what. Dry Cold is still COLD different degrees are more dangerous, sure, but being cold is still being cold.

Living in one’s Freezer is generally not much fun. Living in one’s Refridgerator is cool, but not THAT bad.

Think of it: Refridgerator Door Opens, you look for something, taking your time …
Freezer door opens, Rushing to find what you want, slam the door shut fast.

In the Summer, the Fridge feels good. The Freezer offers instant cool down. In the Winter, the Fridge sends a chill your way, and the Freezer is no fun place to be near.

I speak of a nature regulated house. No Central A/C or Central Heat.

So I need to go find a wool sweater to put on. I’m wearing lesser clothing for this weather. Lots more than I was wearing yesterday, but it’s not good enough!

For now, it’s that my toes are chilly, and my fingers are quite cold. I have a big kitten in my lap keeping THAT warm as I type. If I wasn’t typing I could put my hands under said kitten, and get warmer fast! Continue reading →

Liberty Apple Blossoms

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Here is the best photo I took with the digital camera on April 9, 2004, IMO. It’s a closeup portrait of blossoms on a Liberty Apple Tree. It’s a semi-swarf tree, we have two of them, originally planted in March 1998 as small bareroot trees in the front yard, and moved to their present location in the backyard, near the Bluebird Nestbox, a couple of years ago, when we put in a bunch of other trees.

Portrait of Liberty Blossoms, April 9, 2004, NE Georgia.

This photo is incredible as a desktop, so check back for a version that will satisfy your own monitor soon! It’ll be available to download by Friday, if not before.

UPDATE: It’s Saturday 12:32pm eastern; I obviously don’t have the desktop available for download. I won’t promise when that’ll be now, but it’ll be ASAP. :)

Ice Storm

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On Sunday late afternoon, the rain on trees started to turn to ice. So, we finally had an ice storm. It was mild here, the roads were mostly safe, as far as we know from what we experienced.

Everything was frozen through this morning, only melting as the morning warmed up finally. One and a half days of ice was nice … the tree’s are exceptionally pretty like that, but weak trees tend to break or fall over in a dangerous bend. Well planted, healthy trees are generally alright, but older and natural planted pines tend to have problems here in GA.

We were at the Mall of GA last night, B&N, and the sight was so silvery, so many trees all decked out in natures beautiful ice.

I would have pictures of our trees right now, but the Digital camera is not working again. I have film pictures, well, will have eventually.

I’m frustrated with this [digital] camera, it has worked alright, then didn’t at all, then did fine for awhile then now doesn’t work again. We’ll have to find the book and look to see if temps are going to make certain thing not work. The thing about the two “not working” times is that the are not the same. First time the lens did not come out at all. This time it does come out, then goes right back in.

So, it’s now soggy time, as the temps go up, and all that rain gets to absorb into the ground finally.

We are in for a few nights of below freezing though, and only Partly Cloudy days, which are not quite sunny or warm enough to make things warm in the house. Well, we had a couple of nice days before the ice days. Winter continues, cold, warm, mild conditions, a little wintry weather.

It is a late first ice we’ve had. It really wasn’t in the usual ahead forecasts. We do have the next forecast wintry weather on Feb 6. Rain, mixed with snow, then later snow possible. It’ll be interesting to see if we get that, and how soon or late, and if anything else crops up.