A Few Rock Garden Details

I just have to show you the proof that there were four 'Jewel Baby' iris, and they all bloomed at one time.

This came up last year too. It doesn't belong in the rock garden. I also have a few others that are scattered around in various places. I should try to get them collected into one location where they would look better in a group. This is a 'Pheasant Eye' narcissus, a very old variety. In fact, I'm pretty sure these came from my home in New York.

And, speaking of members of the Narcissus genus, This is one I haven't seen for decades. this is 'Sun Disc.' My records say I planted 5 bulbs in 2002. It's a little unusual in how rounded and flat it is. I'd be happy to see it increase.

The Wall Cress is doing well. This was a survivor from the former rock garden that is thriving.

Finally for today, the Lewisia is starting to bloom, and the Sempervivum 'Black' next to it is still a nice contrast. Both Lewisia survived the winter, but are smaller than when they came from the store. I'm hopeful they will settle in here and grow. It bloomed for a long, long time last year, so perhaps that will happen again this year.

Oddly enough, the variety is 'Elise,' but there are many colors of that same variety. the store had yellow, white, and light pink, as well as this bright pink. I didn't buy another. I have a lot of yellow flowers. If I'm getting pink, it won't be light pink, and I can find more reliable plants in white.

And continuing to speak of the store... There wasn't a single plant I wanted. They are carrying all the same things as in the past. I haven't made the rounds of all the nurseries yet, but I suspect I'll need to order things if I want different things. That gets expensive. So far, I haven't bought a single plant this year. Can you believe it?

But I do need to get busy weeding. The rock garden looks pretty good, but it's going to be out of control soon. In particular, the blue fescue grass is getting seed heads. If I don't want 10 million of those they need to get cut tomorrow! Today was cool and humid with a couple of rain showers.

I continued on my quest to put things away, got back to editing, and some of my other routine projects. It's beginning to look as if some progress is being made. Oh, and I put a different aerator on the kitchen faucet. The one I bought last month was awful. I like the one I just put on. Of course, now we have a leaking toilet. The jobs never end.

See Fresh Color

Fresh Color!

For the past week, I've only been able to take an occasional peek at my gardens. They are looking wonderful (if I do say so myself)!

This is the west end of the front bed. The various hostas have just exploded, and the other foliage plants have brightened up. I won't name all the things today. This is just a day about the color palette.

And this is a different angle on the same space. Not only are there colors, but textures, and you can see more of my broken block walkway I added last year.

This is the East end of the front bed, where I'll still be working to get more plants. This is basically two heuchera, two hosta and an astilbe.

The rock garden is still in full spring color. The blue in the middle is the bronze ajuga. There is too much of it, but it's easy to remove as I get other things to add. And it's such a wonderful blue! And it tolerates the heat come summer.

This line of crabapple trees is at the Methodist Church, but the color is so fantastic, I have to include it.

Well, I worked on more cleanup today, but I had an interview with an outdoor media channel and had to do a little prep for that. They picked up the porta potty. Didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped, but at least I'm working on the things I'm supposed to be doing.

See A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

If I Had a Bell...

... I'd ring it in the morning. Bell choir season finale this morning! "When the Saints Go Marching In." This was really hard, and you might wish we were playing it faster, but hey... we didn't really mess it up, so we are happy!



And because Memorial Day is coming, one patriotic song at the end, "America."



I wasn't as tired as I thought I might be today, but it certainly wasn't a high-energy day. Church, then some grocery shopping. I vowed to try to start putting things away this afternoon. Managed 20 items.

That doesn't sound like much, but the house is totally trashed, and I have to find all the pieces of some group of things and then get them returned to their space. Worked on getting emails cleaned up and answered, you know... all the stuff I've been ignoring for at least a week.

Cathy came by and we talked about things to think about for another time. I possibly have a non-profit group that might sponsor a grant for Confidence Camp. And I'm already cooking up a modified plan for kids.

See Bell Choir- April 2026

Confidence Camp- "Final Exam"

Today was the "final exam" phase of the week. Last night I gave everyone a map, a compass bearing, and a distance to travel, which they plotted on their maps.

Today we went to a section of National Forest that was 1 mile by 0.6 mile. No trails, a few old roads. It was bounded on all sides by roads.

Each person had a different course to follow. We sent the person with the longest walk on her way first. See her out there through the leaves? She was also the youngest participant. See my strategy there? <wink>

Each had the goal to find either Cathy's car, Miki's car, or my car. We weren't trying to trick anyone. We were at specific locations along the boundary roads.

Everyone mostly stuck to map and compass only falling back on electronics for some occasional verification. Here comes a successful bushwhacker out to find me.

We came back with the same number of people we left with! Celebretory pizza at the end of a full week.

Here we are- six confident campers with Cathy and me as staff.

This whole experience went better than my wildest dreams. These ladies were so enthusiastic and kept telling me how much fun they were having. They caught on to plants to watch for very quickly. They loved the firebuilding.

I was particularly pleased that when sent off alone to find their way through this forest section they chose to do it primarily without electronics. My goal was to induce a little bit of stress, but set them up for success, and that's exactly what happened. One person got a little off course, but we found her with no real issues. And she said she probably learned more by her mistakes than if she'd gone directly to her goal.

I haven't done much this afternoon, and I may just watch a movie tonight. I need to chill and let some of this percolate.

If I'm going to keep doing this (and I am), I need to raise some money for a bit more infrastructure. Pondering Kickstarter. You have to be a non-profit to get most grants, or find a non-profit that will sponsor you.

Some walking occurred today, but I have no idea how much. Maybe a couple of miles. I was mostly at my car waiting to pick up and drop off campers who were orienteering through the woods.

See Confidence Camp- Day 5

Confidence Camp- Day 5

Today, we talked about Thermal Regulation (prevention and responses to getting too hot or too cold). Then we went outside and practiced hanging a cache to make your food more critter-resistant. Here is someone attempting to throw the rope over the bar that is attached to my deck. The bar is 15 feet off the ground, and that is really a minimum height to achieve a good cache.

Once the rope is over the bar (usually a tree branch when you are backpacking), you load up your bag, and raise it to be at least 10 feet off the ground, 3 feet from the branch, and 6 feet from anything vertical (the tree trunk is being portrayed by the deck post). Those are minimums. Higher and farther is better.

We actually had a beautiful day! It got really windy in the afternoon (and took my tent down again), but that didn't interfere with our activities.

This was kind of a leftover from the firebuilding days that didn't get completed because we ran out of time. Everyone tried a "metal match," which is a firestarter that isn't bothered by getting wet. This is a rod made of an alloy of metals that throws sparks when struck with a hard object- a metal bar is provided. I got a wad of dryer lint to ignite.

Everyone got to try it, and a few managed to light a firestarter.

Then we covered some more "classroom" topics and did an exercise on declination.

After dinner was a short prep time for tomorrow's "Final Exam." There will be no failures. Because even if someone does not manage to find their goal (bushwhacking through unfamiliar woods to a specific place) they will have learned things. Don't worry, I promise not to lose anyone tomorrow either.

Each participant charted their course for tomorrow on the map.

And now, I am just about done for one more day. My energy level has been amazing all week. These campers have had so much enthusiasm that it's just pumping me up.

I think I can safely say that I'll be doing this again- Good Lord willin' and the crik don't rise.

See Confidence Camp- Day 4