Black Friday In The Garden, Photos by Amy

  After a busy day with terrific food and family time yesterday, I awoke very early this morning.  It was not to hop in the car to go shopping.  I don't do that on the day after Thanksgiving.  I was feeling dizzy and queasy and thought the day was going to be a disaster. Then while sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, I noticed brilliant flashes of blue outside the kitchen window.  I immediately thought of bluebirds, but that seemed like wishful thinking.  A few minutes later a bird came back and sat on top of one of the bluebird houses.  Both Amy and Ed saw him.  The brilliant blue, reddish throat and white tummy made it definite.  Bluebirds on November 24 would have to go down as something special in any garden journal!  Just seeing them made me feel a little better.

 Bluebirds and beautiful blue skies called for a walk in the garden with the camera and Amy.  Actually she did most of the walking and I spent a lot of time sitting on the garden bench in the sunshine. Here we have  the backside of a sunflower.  What an interesting place to leave your sunflower seeds.

Howling winds have blown most milkweed seeds away,  but these two pods are still waiting for these seeds to have a chance to fly away on their silken fluff.

This milkweed seed is hung up in the top of a catnip plant.

Cold has turned the hens and chicks a lovely red.  The prickles on the end of each leaf are perfect for snagging milkweed fluff.  I don't see any seeds here. Perhaps they have been eaten or maybe I will be pulling tiny milkweed plants out of the hens and chicks in the spring.

This unknown Sedum was a stowaway in the pot of another purchased plant.  I planted it on top of Ed's curved wall.  It shows an interesting tangle of textures, shapes, color and light. 

Prickly and soft, red and white, light and shadow make this photo a favorite!

Moss and lichens adorn the top of this stone wall.  Hazelnut catkins add a little more interest! 

The side view of the same rock adds another dimension.  There are always interesting things to see in the garden. Walking there with someone special who notices is perfect!

Watching And Waiting For Snow To Melt

Watching and waiting for the snow to melt is tough on a gardener!  It's boring like watching paint dry, but anticipation makes it much more difficult. Containing  the whining and moaning is even worse! Today when the rain stopped, I was very excited to get a chance to venture outside.  The garden is still out of  my reach and covered with snow, but I found some wonderful things growing anyway!

It has been years since Ed built this fence out of  split black locust logs.  It takes some real time for lichens to grow.  With all the  moisture from rain, fog, sleet ...  they are at their very best!  This one has great pale green color and interesting texture.

These tiny spikes are growing on top of a post right at my eye level.  Just like on the corn flakes box the picture is slightly enlarged to show texture!  I'm so happy I didn't have to get down on the wet ground to take this!

I know these lichens have been here for a long time.  With the background of never-ending white snow, oops a little bit of whining there,  I noticed their beautiful color and texture today!

This one is different than the others I think, but I am very interested in the  single file of little spikes growing in a crack in the wood.

On the same log nearby I found these red soldiers.  Wouldn't it be special if those spikes grew to be a line of red soldiers in single file!  Even if that were true, I wonder how long it takes them to grow?

The snow has receded enough to reveal these hens and chicks planted on top of Ed's  curved stone wall.  They brought joy to my heart.  Soon there will be many plants to attract my attention.  I was delighted to see these today!

Beautiful Moments In The Garden

There's so much to do in the garden now!  It's nice to stop for a few moments and appreciate some of the incredible beauty there.  A Skipper loves the delicate blue Amsonia flowers and so do I!  Skippers flit about the garden all the time, but it is a rare treat to catch one still enough for a photograph.

Pink Ontherea and Dianthus co-mingle in the same space making a mixed pink bouquet right there in the perennial border.  No cutting is needed.

Rose campion with its pale grey foliage and magenta flowers makes a bold statement!  This striking volunteer is a plant I always let grow unless I have a reason to pull it.

Campanula portenschlagiana flows from the spaces in Ed's wall around the shade garden.  We could never have too many of these lovely lavender and white stars around!

Ahhh... Nothing is more satisfying than taking a moment to enjoy  freshly weeded red creeping thyme on Ed's stone patio.  It feels so good, I think I will do another patio today!

What can say about this picture?  Wow!  I guess in my fantasy garden I might have a lovely lady with the hens and chicks for a hat and the dew covered spider web for a veil over her face.  But this is our garden and reality is already perfect for us.  You could never count on a spider to cooperate anyway!

Chilled Garden Close Ups

Things are cooling off in the garden. If out thermometer is correct it went down to 10 degrees last night. Obviously this sedum plant has reacted to the cold, but the hens and chicks are still looking good.

An even closer look shows us that as gross as this  sedum looks it still has  has tiny new growth at its base ready for next spring.

Right now this English lavender plant couldn't look more beautiful. It's not the cold but moisture that lavender despises.

Yes! This is a dead stick. I was captivated by the white fungus growing on it. Its white color and coral like texture  captured my imagination.

During the sunny part of the day Ed is working with stones now, getting ready to build a wall. He found this  fossil. It  was fascinating enough to place on  top of the shade garden wall where we can look at it whenever we wish. This small stone may have the deepest fossil imprint we have found here.