Saturday, April 28, 2012

Coming Home, Flora and Fauna Report

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We arrived back in SE Michigan about 4:30 April 27th.  Man started looking at lawn mowers, cars, batteries, water pumps, removed the BBQ that had been sitting in the hallway of the house for about 20 months (HUGE WOOT) and all sorts of mechanical stuff.  I, of course, grabbed Sony and walked around the place discovering the situation with the flora and fauna and such.

It looks like it will be a bonus year for helicopters, which translates into, mucho weeding of baby trees, I could probably start my own forest from the looks of it, whew, every maple in the yard is loaded, really loaded - -


The  forsythia and star magnolias are DONE!  Ditto for the daffodils.  The iris are just beginning to bud out, the grass is Irish Hills kelly 'hurt your eyes' green.  The weeds are growing and I am already behind.

For the most part the dandelions have bloomed:


The johnny jump ups have jumped:


The bleeding hearts are right on time, they rarely bloom in my yard before April 23rd.


My wild violets that spread all over the yard, showing up someplace different each spring, are at peak,  I think these are about on time, maybe a bit late:


There is water under the bridge, not as much as a few years ago when both ends of the bridge were actually UNDER water, but more than we see many years:


Usually I am not thrilled about the unpacking process, Tana is my home, at this point in my life, yes, Tana is my favorite home, I mean, look where she (and Jolly and Man) take me.  But, I have to say that this year I have not been minding too much, and one of the major reasons is this, my Korean Spice bush (below).  This is about 3 weeks early, usually full bloom does not happen until mid May, right about Mother's Day.  It is a bonus blooms year, just love bonus blooms, don't you?


There are times I would so dearly love to have smell-a-vision/computer.  This is one.  Korean Spice has the most delectable smell, even walking 4 feet away you can smell it. There are not words to describe, except, maybe a bit of heaven.  Every trip to Tana to bring something into the stick built has been enhanced by the delightful and heavenly scent I get to walk by.  I purposely planted the Korean Spice near the driveway and garage so I could have just this experience year after year.


My lilacs are also in full bloom, again, several weeks early, the color on this is a deep reddish purple, rich in color and yes, they also smell heavenly.


The baby goslings are about a week or so old, still have some yellow about them, but, are about triple the size of new hatches, so I have to say they are a bit early too, maybe by a week or so.


It was an interesting walk about.  Some of the flora were blooming right on time, others are 2 to 3 weeks early.

And, now, let the weeding and planting and such begin.  Summer is right around the corner - -




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4 comments:

PalmsRV said...

What a beautiful homecoming you had.

Jasia said...

Wow! You have a LOT going on in your yard! I could have more if I wanted to but that would require more gardening time and effort. :-P

Lovely pics and a lovely yard!

Jo Graham said...

Lovely photos, Carol. Your violets are so pretty and I would love to have a sniff of the Korean Spice. I have a philadelphus which smells gorgeous for the few weeks it flowers :-) Jo

Barbara Poole said...

Looks like Spring welcomed you home. You Bleeding Hearts are breathtaking, as is your purple Iris on the previous post. Enjoy your yard, once more.