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

Those Flowering Trees

I may have reached panic mode for Confidence Camp. Everyone arrives tomorrow afternoon, and I'm just trying to get all the final things ready. Cathy and Doug came over today and brought their four-wheeler. It will be here for the week to make trips to the house for needed items

I mowed the new "road" and the whole campsite.

We installed the fire ring and took the picnic tables and a few odd things that can stay outside to the campsite.

But what I want to share is that line of flowering trees that is just down the road from me. I'm pretty sure they are all ornamental crabapples.

I think the pink with the red buds is the most stunning.

But then there is pure white.

Can't decide? You can have a mix.

OK, gotta get back to work.

See That Line of Flowering Trees

More Spring

  This seems to be an amazingly colorful spring. Maybe it's just lasting longer because the weather has stayed cool, holding the leaves in bud longer.

Cathy and I took a walk today at Scottville Riverside Park. We weren't trying for any big distance- actually we were trying to follow the cross-country race course that winds through the park. This picture is just along one of the old berms from the treatment ponds. I like the line of white-barked aspens on the left.

This ornamental crabapple sure is pretty.

There is a backlog of spring pictures from earlier in the week. Along the trail, I ran into a few small goldthread, Coptis trifolia. Although it grows in almost every county in Michigan, it's a little surprising to see it along the trail in the Manistee NF, because it likes damper conditions than most of the dry sandy ground along the trail. This isn't a great specimen; it usually grows in thick patches, often mixed with moss. The leaves to the right of the flower, and dead center, bottom are the ones for this plant. Interestingly enough, the white is not the petals, but the sepals. The actual petals are the yellow. It gets its name because it has fine, thread-like roots that are bright yellow.

Finally, I love sassafras in the spring. OK, I love it in any season. If you are driving along and see bright yellow-green buds reaching for the sunlight on up-curving twigs, it's probably sassafras.

The flower buds are just beginning to open.

In other news: I edited in the morning. Walked in the afternoon and remembered to go to bell choir practice. Plan to work on the Newaygo County Data Book some more this evening.

Scottville Riverside Park, Scottville, MI. Cross Country course and more. 3.7 miles

See Sassafras!

Five Flat Farm Miles

  Drove 1.5 miles so I could walk a road loop that was at least different from my usual. Nothing spectacular. But it was nice and quiet, and I did walk 5 miles. The rows of corn stubble make great patterns.

Farms look like they are hunkered down and waiting for the snow.

The best find was two of these Golden Harvest Crabapple trees. They are garden varieties, but two trees seem to have gone wild- growing near the edge of the road. They are edible, but they are often left as ornamentals because the fruits persist into the winter lending a spot of bright color. Each fruit is a little over an inch in diameter.

In other news: I wrote chapter 13 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer. And I continued to try to find the box of things I'm looking for. Still no luck. I am giving up tomorrow. It will turn up somewhere I'm not expecting it. Probably right after I put away the other things I want to collect with it.

See Farm Country

Beauty Surrounds Me

 
Spring is in full-tilt loveliness here, so I want to share. You've seen all these before, but not this year, so I hope you enjoy them again.

The is cowslip primrose, and it continues to do well in my un-kept garden.



The crabapple tree is wonderful, as it almost always is.



Lots of common purple violets, but just because they are ordinary doesn't mean they aren't beautiful.



I think my lilacs are going to look really nice this year. I'll take any blooming things I can get!



And finally, the pear trees are looking great. The sour cherry trees also had great blossoms. Now if we don't get a late hard frost, this might be a good fruit year.



In other news: I wrote all morning, and then worked on my newspaper column in the afternoon. It's due on Monday. Seems like these months between deadlines get shorter and shorter! Also went shopping. Wow- Meijer was packed. I guess everyone local decided to shop before the weekend really began. I ran into 4 separate people I know that I hadn't seen in a long time. That was fun. But then a lady cut ahead of me in the checkout line. Instead of being gracious, I fussed at her, which didn't make her give me my place back, or make me feel better either. Wonder why I decided to be snippy today... I don't usually bother--it's such a small thing, and I wasn't even pressed for time. I also got ready for the weekend- I begin the summer vendor events tomorrow morning. Here we go. I think I'll need to hang on for the ride, but I've decided I've got to go all in to sell books.

	See Primrose Lane
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Fruity?

 
Lots of lovely blossoms right now. It could be a good fruit year. Of course, it's only the second week in May, so we could have a hard frost yet.

And in deciding what to picture this afternoon, I learned something new. If you had shown me just these blossoms, I don't think I could have identified them. Even if you'd given me the three trees, I would have had to guess as to which is which. Now, maybe I'll recognize them better.

The three all have white blossoms: sour cherry, Bartlett pears, and edible crabapple (possibly Ralph Shay variety).

Let's do the easy one first. This is our crabapple. It's an old-fashioned one that you can eat the apples, not an ornamental one. It's so old it should be long dead, but it continues to be wonderful every year. The flowers have long twisted petals with a spray of yellow stamens and anthers.





The other two are harder to tell apart. Here is the sour cherry. The petals are nearly round. The filaments are white with greenish anthers (the two parts of the stamen).





And the pear. The pear petals are nearly identical to the cherry, and maybe it's easiest to distinguish them by looking at the longer view. The filaments are white, but the anthers are darker, looking as if there is a spray of dark dots surrounding the center of the blossom.





If we have a good fruit year, it's hard to do enough with it all to keep me from feeling wasteful. This is especially true of the pears. Although, I have now collected quite a few recipes of things to do with them that we like, and can be frozen.

Last year, I didn't manage to do much at all with our fruit. Even though it wasn't a great year, I didn't do a single thing except with some apples. Hopefully, I'll do better this year.

	See Red, Lovely Crabapples
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Blooming Trees

 
I am just feeling like I'm in temporary heaven with trees blossoming! [updated ID info in brackets]

Always so busy when visiting people that I'm too tired to say much at the end of the day, but I don't think you'll mind. The pictures speak for themselves. There is not a snowflake in sight.

This is a row of trees across the street from where we are staying. I think they are crabapples, but they are awfully large so I could be wrong. [I am wrong. The white ones are Bradford Pears- which produce no pears, but are often used for landscaping trees in this area.]







This looks like some sort of tree rose. [This one has been IDed for me as a red camellia. I didn't even know they came in that color!]



This is an azalea.



And a weeping cherry.



Sigh... you'll never see every wonderful thing from this week. There's just too much. It's wonderful already and I've been here one day. Took a five mile walk this afternoon, too.

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