Burns, Boise and Gardens

 One last post about my 'spring' garden. I have been busy traveling, and when I got home I was exited to find that my little garden had fully developed. So, there are two kinds of daffodils, peach tulips and the blue muscari. 

We were in Burns for Easter where we visited my mother in law, my sister and brother in law, and two couples that we haven't seen in over 30 years. We had a lovely time at church and a great ham dinner after that. 

Next, I went to Boise, Idaho with my sister in law for a week. We stayed with my niece Deana and her caregivers. Deana has had MS for many years and needs constant care. Her husband takes a vacation/break a couple times a year, and my sister in law comes to help out. We had an absolutely lovely time, and I had a vacation to boot. It is always good to see Deana and spend some time with her. During the days my sister in law and I spent time with other friends, had some nice lunches out and did some shopping. Then we came back to Deana's in the afternoon and spent the evening until she was ready for the night. On Sunday we accompanied a friend to her Catholic Church and attended Mass. I had done that once before in college, but this was a large and interesting service.

We also visited with my other niece Kellie and her two daughters, Tiegan and Alexandria. It was prom weekend, so we went with them to the park for some photos.

There was lots going on. I usually spend most of my time at home, so this was a nice change.

Spring is bringing lots of activity this year, in spite of the rain we have enjoyed. 

Now, we are off to the coast for a couple of days...6 of us. Hope you are having fun too!

Then Sings My Soul

This is exactly how I feel when I am outside in my yard and/or garden. Then sings my soul to Thee, O God, in praise for the works of Thine hands.

I have been outside off and on for the past three weeks, and it has felt so good. This bed has now popped up, and will be a mix of daffodils first, tulips second, and muscari (wild grape hyacinth) last. I can't wait! 

One thing we can do over here is grow large crocus, and they are in full bloom now and thank goodness for the colors, as the rest of Central Oregon is pretty well brown. But just working in the dirt, and cleaning away debris is fulfilling.

I have chosen a word this year to work on in my life. The word is 'authentic'. I want to be truly known, and truly know others. I want to be who God created me to be. It has helped me so much just to relax, and not worry what anyone else thinks or if they like me or not. My whole perspective is lighter and happier. I am an authentic flower gardener. It took me years of growing various vegetables to find this out, because everyone else thought vegetable gardening was 'serious' gardening. But now I have found my true delight, in growing beautiful flowers, and basically flowers only. It is hard here. People in the Willamette Valley or Treasure Valley would just laugh at what I call 'my garden'. But I don't care. Not anymore. It's what makes me happy and healthy and brings a little patch of beauty to our Central Oregon landscape. There are various ways of great beauty here: tall old growth cedars and ponderosa pines against a majestic blue sky, wildflowers along the Metolius River in June and a wide sky as far as the eye can see. But not so many flowers. And so I garden and go to sleep at night happy.

Dreaming in Central Oregon

FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

There are at least a couple of blooms out there to see. First crocuses.

But the rest of the garden beds look like this:

I just had to get out there and do something though, so I cleaned out two beds.

This one has a lot of spring flowering bulbs just coming up. (Stay posted)

I helped them by uncovering them to the sun, a good spring thing to do.

And this one is empty, ready for the dahlias we will plant in May.

Both beds were covered with pine needles, pine boughs, pine cones, pine cone skeletons and pine cone leaves in a thick layer. I think eating the cones has been the way our squirrels have survived the recent storms. Just wish they wouldn't throw their remains down on my garden!

Someday we will have green again and lovely blooms. Dreaming of spring over here in Central Oregon!

Came in Like a Lion, Going Out Like a Lamb?

 Well, March did come in like a lion, more like a pack of lions. We have lived here for over 30 years, and I have never seen such a late series of winter storms. Let me be clear, I LOVE snow. I can never usually get enough of it. But these last weeks, even I cringed to wake up to more grey gloomy skies letting go of yet more snow flakes.

 We have been in a frozen pocket of gray freezing fog for two weeks, plus the snow. Cold temperatures, that I think the lowest was 4 degrees, and the usual highs were under 20 degrees. We got an initial dump of 3 feet of snow at once, then it added up over days to 4 1/2 feet or so at our house. 

 Oh for childhood, when we had no responsibility for the snow, just the fun. People struggled all over town, to shovel or snow blow homes and businesses, and later to get snow off roofs and chip away ice dams. Let alone just drive anywhere. Schools were down all week and many businesses for at least two days or more. 

 Even I, snow lover that I am, got down and tired of all the struggle. The insurance man was out every day shoveling, and caught a bronchial bug that he tried to ignore, but managed to share with me. I think if this had happened in December, deep winter, like it's supposed to, it wouldn't have been quite so bad. But my daffies, tulips and crocuses had already broken ground and I was looking forward to a bit of spring bloom. Who knows when all this ice will melt and we will see ground again? 

 As I write this, at least the cold and fog have lifted, and we are seeing sunshine and blue skies. What a treasure that is. Hope once again for rebirth and springtime. We are also headed over the mountain pass (feet upon feet of snow) for a memorial service, and should see some blooms in the Willamette Valley. I snapped this photo two weeks ago, on the Oregon Coast, to reassure myself that spring blooms do still exist somewhere.

Here is to hoping that March goes out like a lamb!

October: Snow, completed projects and gorgeous fall color!

 Well, October 2017 brought snow! That's early even for us. It snowed right on our fall colored trees and bushes. It was so much fun to watch, because they were wet, warm big snow 'bunches' as opposed to snow flakes. Nothing actually stuck, which is why that kind of snow is everyone's favorite.

 

 Other news of interest to my grandsons, is that Papa finally finished his shed, paint and all. He built it from his head and scrap materials, and it turned out so nice and holds lots of storage stuff.

 This was a sign that the grandsons gave him, and he's been saving it for just the right time. It now tells everyone who this shed belongs too! Looks great guys.

 This is the other shed, which we cleaned out and turned from a junk shed to a garden shed. Great to get these projects done!

 I will just leave you with a little fall color in the yard. The sedum which is lovely in the fall, and just keeps coming back each year in it's planters.

 A red wing maple tree, that is my favorite!

And a burning bush...which really looks like it is burning in the sunshine.

Have a great rest of October everyone!

After a Cold Wet Winter

 After a cold wet winter, with lots of snow for insulation, my garden has been in great shape this spring and summer. I have so enjoyed getting out and enjoying all my thriving plants.

 This is a honeysuckle bush and some pretty petite iris's that I got from my mother-in-law's yard before she sold her home.

 These iris are called 'Stepping Out' and I got them from a wonderful lady who gardened in Burns and shared them with me probably 40 years ago. I have been dragging them with me to each yard I have gardened in since. The insurance man and our grandson Ben dug them up last fall and divided them, so that I had enough to share with daughter Joy.

 Various plants blooming among the lava rocks.

 This is another plant I moved from Burns to Bend, and they are the prettiest deep red peonies. Love this bush Mom!

 Results of the peonies...

Welcome to our Autumn Garden

Hello there...welcome to our autumn home and garden. It's dahlia time once again, and I just knew you would love for me to share the beauties that we grew this year. One big difference was that we were able to winter over all our tubers (we dug them up) and didn't have to buy any. We actually remembered to wet them down each month during the winter. One result was that we got more of individual flowers and less variety. An interesting change.

A really nice patch of dahlias, and I have so enjoyed them.

We got a variety of 'mutated' dahlias this year, interesting specimens.

 This one was a two sided dahlia, with two different dahlias grown right together. Two sides, one bloom. At least they color co-ordinated.

And yes, it is an Autumn garden now days. 

Virginia Creeper is brilliant

                               

Burning bush and autumn sedum

Sumac just starting to turn

And lovely crab apples putting on fruit and leaves changing. Yes, definitely 

autumn colors. But the leaves are still on and theres a bit of Indian Summer left too. I love this time of year in the garden. Hope you do too!