Rock Garden Makes Me Happy

I am socked in working on Confidence Camp notebooks. But the rock garden is looking so pretty! This is a shot across the top with lots of color.

Now the Hawara daffodils are blooming. I put the wrong labels on earlier ones, I'll have to go back and fix those.

I have a tiny bit of the 'Candystripe' moss phlox left. Most of it reverted to plain pink and white.

One of the Lewisia has a lot of buds. I'm hopeful.

And the Rock Cress is in full bloom. It's quite reliable- one of the survivors from the original garden.

OK, it's back to work for me. Got a LOT done today, but there is lots to do yet.

See Jewel Baby

Small Goodies

I spent most of the day working on Confidence Camp. Cathy came over and we divided and packaged a lot of the items that participants will receive and learn how to use. I spent most of the rest of my time refining "lesson plans."

Meanwhile, some more areas of the rock garden are looking nice. This area of color is great. The yellow is Moneywort, Lysemachia nummularia 'Goldilocks.' This has totally surprised me by looking better than ever since I've revived the rock garden. It really prefers something more moist. There are violets, and a Sempervivum Margaret gave me that stays quite red.

This is another of the miniature daffodils I bought a long time ago but has come back. This is 'Rip VanWinkle' with violets and some of the first of the moss phlox to open behind it.

This is a daffodil I split last year that had gotten all bunched up. The other patch didn't come up, but the ones I left in the rock garden did. They are really too tall, but I put them at the very bottom, so that works. These are a tarzetta daffodil, variety 'Erlicheer.' The leaves persist way too long, so I need to figure out what else I can also put there for later in the year.

I just have to show you the Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget' again. It's starting to change from red to gold!

And for the final act of the day, we will switch to the front flower bed. This is the sunburned Brunnera I bought at the end of the summer last year. It's the first of my Brunnera to bloom this spring! Variety is 'Variegata.' I'm really happy with this one. I really bought all of my Brunnera for the foliage, but have been delighted with the early spring forget-me-not-like flowers.

It still hasn't rained, but it's been plenty windy!

See A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Conservation Trail - Not All Paved

 Today's miles were tough only because it was impossibly humid. We got out early enough to beat the real heat, but it didn't really matter. About the first third was still paved trail.

After that, it was still the rail trail, but it was a grass surface. Nice to walk on! Our only real complaint was that the grassy trail had no benches. We walked and walked til we found a place we could sit for our break.

Some cute little white mushrooms looking like scarecrow hats.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 307.4. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 40.1

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Shimerville Rd. to Forest Rd. 7.1 miles

BONUS SECTION: Ann's Garden

We went to host Joyce's sister's garden the other evening. It was beautiful! Come along.

She has waterfalls and ponds. This one has pink lights in the water.

This one is even larger and has blue lights in the water.

Container gardens on the steps are always nice with a number of different coleus and other things.

I really like the gooseneck loosestrife.

But the garden phlox and daisies are spectacular too.

The new one to me was a large bush called sweetshrub with big flowers. It's supposed to be aromatic, but I didn't smell it. Next time.

I'm in the very last stages of getting How to Hike the North Country Trail ready. The final check of the pdfs just happened. If I can stay awake, I'll upload them to the printer tonight. If not... tomorrow.

See Peanut Line and Stella T. Rex

Spencer Park Loop

  Today was mostly about visiting with one more friend from Girl Scout days and moving the trailer to a different place to camp. Here are the three of us, Marie, Janet, and me. We all went to the 1965 Roundup together, and were on Senior Planning Board. They both came to my HS graduation. Here we are... just a tad older, but as the song says: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." Janet suggested we go for a short walk around the pond in Spencer where she lives. It was really lovely. Lots of flower beds with midsummer flowers- phlox and coneflower. One friendly (?) crocodile to play on. And another nifty nature encounter- this young red-tail hawk, possibly just a fledgling, was sitting on a rocky bank near the road. I was able to get quite close. We are established at our new campsite. The wind is blowing really hard, but all is well.

See Fun with Friends

Hairy Phlox

 
Although you may not care as much about the details as I do, I doubt anyone will mind seeing more pretty flower pictures.

This is another one from the Cane Creek Canyon Preserve. That area has quite a few rare plants. Probably lots of you know phlox from your garden. There's also a common wild phlox that is about a foot high or a little taller. It's usually a purplish-blue color.

This one is even shorter, and these flowers are more magenta, although all the phlox range through the pink to blue colors. It's Hairy Phlox, Phlox amoena, and the key feature is the bracts are hairy but the calyx is not. I didn't get a picture that really shows that, since I didn't know what to look for.



This grows only in specialized locales, with basic chemistry. In this case, they are growing in damp soil over a limestone base. In Alabama, that's known as a "glade." This species doesn't grow north of the Ohio River.

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