Spring Won't Quit!

This seems like a blooming plum tree, but we didn't plant it and don't really know. . .perfectly located outside the front door for more privacy. Thanks, birds!

Tulips growing!

This is so great! In the new rain barrel, a frog's egg sac. We won't need to go up the road and steal tadpoles from a seasonal pond we know of. This is the clearest picture, though too bad about the glare.

One surprise daffodil in a side yard.

Hugs for the currant blossoms. I feel that way, too, Frida!

Also, many birds we've never seen before are showing up. And some kind of hawk now perches regularly on top of a telephone pole across the street. We're trying for pictures but it isn't easy to catch them.

Hodge Podge of Spring Signals

Lovely flowers that have bloomed all winter. Does it matter what their name is?

Wow, rosemary loves this time of year.

Pondering these onion-sprout signs of spring.

It just keeps getting deeper. He's gotten past sod level and silty, dark soil, through clay and now he's at sand level.

Two very different looking artichoke plants (right?). Feels like years since they've been in the ground, but they are thriving. "Over-wintering", I guess. Can't wait to see some more action.

These are four baby river willows, clipped from the river bank, rooted by Frida on the window sill, planted along the fence by the climbing tree. The ground is so soaked we won't worry about watering for a long time.

Hey, a toad hopped into our garage the other night! After spending a little time in Frida's vacation house, it went back to the front yard.

Flowering Japanese red plum trees, in our yard and all over town.
Ours is the skimpiest one I've ever seen. Needs to be pruned, they say. Ok, next year.

Winter Bloom Days

Welcome to winter in our part of the world. Often overcast, misty, rainy, cool, and then days of sunshine and 60 degrees. We're out in the yard less, doing little work but making more plans.

Thank you, Frida, for the bouquet of wild radish flowers and old Brussels sprouts. . .

. . .and your winks. . .

. . .and your enthusiasm for the Christmas cactus, which is right on time.

Rainer got these pictures of a ladybug in the cleaned-up fennel bush. Great to see this garden helper! The fennel sprouts were a tasty treat.

Bamboo is apparently an evergreen, not bothered by the recent freeze.

"Brain plant", a type of dianthus, is growing strong.

Always a hardy flower or plant growing despite frosty night temps and being battered by rains.

Like this calla lily. Woo-hoo! Poor quality picture but the only one before Frida quickly ripped off that irresistible bloom. That's ok, many more to come.

A comparison: backyard today. . .

. . . and four years ago.

This post covers several weeks of taking a few pictures here and there between rains. Not a lot of blooms now, but a lot of green growth. February bloom day should be a whole new story.

Officially Wild

Specifically, we're #126,046 signed up with the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Habitat program. There's our certificate to prove it. We'll make our own sign for all to see and show it to you soon.

Pictured above in the front yard, the dominant predators of our habitat, including special guest and wild man, Isaiah.

Wild Ways

Sugary rhizomes of a licorice fern can be chewed as a gum when raw, boiled or steamed and used medicinally to treat a cold or sore throat. We'll be gathering some up on our next walk in the woods a half-mile from our house, where this fern grows like crazy. Thank you for the information, Wild Girl.
(photo and info from Rebecca Lerner/First Ways.com)

This blog has eye-opening talk from journalist Rebecca "Wild Girl" Lerner about getting more wild in surprising places:

http://firstways.com/

Check out her experiments in living off the land in Portland, OR, on the web magazine Culture Change.

YouTube video of local news apprehending her wild ways. Listen for how impressed they were with her roadkill dinner. haha We're with you, Wild Girl! Last year we feasted on roadkill deer for Thanksgiving, and I was ever so grateful for it.

Bloom Day November 19, 2009

This photo of Frida with a small bouquet of current blossoms is the only picture I took. Credit for the rest goes to Rainer and Frida.

Veronica

Neglected Brussels sprouts

Good view of the compost pile to the left, brambles, kitty in the raspberry patch.

Poppy and nicotiana

Bee on wild radish

Mexican sage

Dried elephant garlic flower head

Portrait of a kitty in blueberries and borage

Ecium

California poppy

Anyone know this one?

From the Redwood Forests

From the National Geographic website.

Our backyard wildlife exists within a regional ecology that includes redwood forests. There are lots of great pictures and information on redwoods in the October, 2009 edition of National Geographic magazine. You can buy it at the store now, or free online.

Video about making photographs in the redwood forest:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=nichols-redwoods-gatefold&catID=1

Poster from October, 2009 National Geographic:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/gatefold-image

Belated Bloom Day, October 2009--photos by Frida

She reminded me of bloom day, took the pictures, and reluctantly allowed Rainer to take one of her. Now she's looking over my shoulder helping identify.

Chamomile

Another kind of fuschia, maybe the most amazing flower I've ever seen.

Dandelions around the edge of the big hole. Rainer's back at it after taking the summer off from digging.

Daisies with a stunted red poppy.

Don't know what they are but they survived a lot of neglect before they were put in the ground.

Another survivor-thriver that loves shade. Violets?

This giant sequoia redwood is growing at an alarming rate! Started from seed, Rainer claims urine is the best fertilizer for this species.

The horrors of this season

So, looks like about 1 full inch, right? We respected this pumpkin spider. It made a huge web all over our door step. We walked to the side. Took pictures. Then Zak came home and we all got excited to run out and meet him. I ran through the web! This spider crawled on me for twenty seconds. It finally jumped off from somewhere on me and crawled under the car. I shiver to tell the tale!