A Tour of the Back Yard

 Let me take you on a virtual tour of the back yard.  We'll stand on the patio and first look to our left (east) and finish up with the view to the right (west). For the last several years there was a big blue eyesore pool sitting on the gravel 'pad', boy am I glad to not have it there!  Though I admit to being a little sad that we won't have a pool to play in this year.  After taking down the pool I made a fire-pit with some urbanite claimed from my friend, Craig aka Craigslist.  We became quite close last year as I gathered up supplies for various projects.   Beyond the fire-pit is what was supposed to be my raised vegetable bed. I say "supposed to be" because it just has never worked out very well for me.  For one thing it just hasn't gotten enough sun there and for another I am one of the few gardeners who cannot even grow zucchini, just ask my friend Katie. Sure, I'd like to bring fresh veggies in from the garden for a summer meal but it just hasn't worked that way for me.  So this past fall I put quite a few tulip bulbs in with the herbs, rhubarb and garlic that are currently in the bed.  Looks like the rhubarb is happy there.

The passionflower vine, of which we can only see half at the back left, is really starting to put on some growth.  I'm hoping for blooms this year.  And I was so pleased to see the clematis is back and growing quickly.  I've had bad luck with them in the past. 

We had the pine tree trimmed up quite a bit to relieve it of dead branches and needles in the hopes that it will let in more sunshine and just have a better appearance.  It used to screen out the neighbor's yard but as the lower branches died it became less and less of a screen.  I was all set to have it removed until the weekend a hawk attacked one of my chickens while they were out free-ranging and I realized that removing the tree would open up their compound quite a bit and not provide cover for them.

The chicken wire is there to protect the young plants as they emerge, I hope to be able to remove it sometime this summer and hope that they won't destroy the plants when I do.  Right now there are hostas, astilbe, iris and hardy a hardy fuchsia all coming up in this area.

   

 

The "compound" as I call it is pretty much thanks to Craigslist and neighbors.  I got real good at asking people for their discards, thought of even taking the nickname Dumpster Diva.  It all started with a pile of fence boards I saw while out on a walk one evening.  They were the beginning of the first chicken house, the one with the red door.  That was in 2013. The second house, fence and arbor were added in 2014 and continue to evolve as need arises.  The first house sat back there alone and the girls spent most of their time free-ranging throughout the yard. Then in 2014 I realized that they really did create quite a bit of mess and I didn't want to be constantly cleaning up after so I put up a temporary fence.  About that same time I added 3 more chicks to the bunch thus the need to build a second house.  And so on.....

There is a pink honeysuckle growing in a pot that I hope will one day grow up and over the arbor. But first I must finish securing the arbor. 

Even with clipped wings the girls occasionally fly out of the compound so I have put up the netting and chicken wire to keep them in.  They quickly figured out that they can fly to the top of the door and get out and they do it at least once a week.  Someday I will tackle that problem too.  Like I said it is an ever changing project as the needs arise.  

I love all the pink flowers (tulips) blooming throughout the yard and I definitely want to plant MORE this fall so I can enjoy them next spring.   Not sure what caused that crater in the back of the lawn but it's been there for a few years.  I filled it in with some compost and hope to get some grass growing there again.

I'm starting some lilies in the pots in the above photo.  That is where my raspberry patch used to be.  Quite a few years ago I started out with 19 canes donated by Dad.  We planted them along the dog kennel fence.  The first year the yield was about 5 berries per day.  The following year we were up to about 1/2 cup per day.  A few years back the plants started dying off.  I started planting the runners outside our fence, between the sidewalk and fence. They are doing pretty well.  Two years ago I topped out at over 30 pounds of berries picked (not including the ones we ate as we picked) and by last year I had a yield of just 15 pounds.  This year we have just a few plants left in the back yard and I am working to keep the other patch going.

 

Lastly you can see just a few raspberry canes inside the dog kennel and the pot of tulips just outside the fence.

What I don't show is the shed, the boat and all the supplies I have stacked up waiting to be used in projects.  I wish I didn't see them either!

Photos from April 12, 2015. 

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to know you stopped by.

It's been FOREVER!

Life is busy. I find it difficult to keep up on posting to the blog, sending out e-mail, checking out facebook and creating new flower creations. That's just the way it is.

Here is my latest. It was so AWESOME to have a mostly sunny day earlier this week. So glad I got my camera out and captured this photo, and others too.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

It's been so long! Life has been busy and taken me in other directions than photography and "Flower of the Day" e-mail and blog posts. I have taken some nice photos over the summer, as I was reminded when I finally uploaded them to my computer today. I hope to eventually use some of them with word art.

These lovely violas were blooming in the crack of my neighbor's driveway earlier this summer. Sometimes I feel like these flowers, isolated and in the middle of a rough place, and I can only hope that I bloom as prettily as these tiny flowers. Maybe I won't make a huge impact, but perhaps I will brighten someone's day. Maybe if someone looks closely enough they will be blessed by what they see.

Probably most people who passed this driveway had no idea that these flowers had taken root there, but I had the luxury of being able to walk and observe what was around me rather than rushing from place to place and so I noticed them.

What are you taking time to notice?

Today I had the opportunity to notice how thoughtful Levi is. He got up before me (chalk that up to me being awakened by the puppy in the night and needing a little more shut-eye in the morning.) He asked me if it would be OK to put the tea kettle on to heat up some water to make himself oatmeal. I said it would be OK, just be sure to be careful. By the time I got up and put Sage (the puppy) out for her breakfast, he had made each of us oatmeal and some tea for me. He had it all set up on the table. What a sweetheart!

Sharon

Word art by Jody McNally

Important Direction

I sent this photo out in my e-mail yesterday or the day before (it seems like a long time ago.) Today Josh Cramer preached a message on Directions at church. It was great.

This photo was taken up at my brother's house last fall. I loved the texture and lighting of the photo. I know it's not a flower, but I thought it was cool anyway.

Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.

Sharon

Credits: Elegant WordArt by Bethany (word art)

A Happy Mother's Day

When I was asked what I wanted to do on Mother's Day afternoon, I told Tad and the boys that I wanted to go to a park and take some pictures of the family. Believe me, they reminded me more than once that it was my idea and not theirs, but they went along with my idea and I did get some nice photos. Only one photo of the 4 of us turned out very well, but I got some nice shots of the boys separately and together.

The photos were taken at Owen Memorial Rose Garden. None of the roses are blooming yet, but by this time next month it will start looking real nice. There were a couple nice dogwoods in bloom and a type of magnolia tree that I hadn't seen before.


After the photo session at the park we headed back home and Tad fixed a barbecue dinner for his parents, brother, niece and us. It was really nice. I didn't have anything else that I really wanted to do at the time so I helped get the salads ready even though he protested. His brother brought angel food cake with strawberries and cream. Most of us played a 9 "hole" game of golf, a card game. They let me win. (Well, I don't think that was really their intention.)

It was a nice day.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing you all a very happy Mother's Day!

Magnolia from our Easter Day visit to the Magnolia Garden in Springfield.

Blessings,

Sharon

Happy Ending

I thought this was a neat quote, "Happy doesn't have to have an Ending," and I just happened to have some tulips that were very near their end.

Sharon

Credits: Bethany Harty of Elegant WordArt (quote)

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

Hope you enjoy the photos from our trip to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. These photos were taken on Friday April 24 when I took the boys to the farm on our way home from Portland. We loved it. I wish we had gone earlier in the day, I could have stayed a whole day if I had the chance. They were having their festival, but we didn't really participate in any of their activities. We just enjoyed walking in the fields and looking at all the beautiful flowers. The boys did have a little bit of time to play in their playground.

Mount Hood was visible to the east. Lovely. When Tad and I visited the farm 2 years ago it was not as perfect of a day. On Friday we enjoyed the sunny and mild weather.


One of the "wilder" varieties.

I think these pink tulips called Judith Leyster are some of my favorites. Especially when they are planted so densely.

A view of the "mix" field.

Lovely purple.

Levi age 7.


Cole age 13.

Me.



A budding photographer. (I also let him use my good camera for a few shots.)

I loved this lily shaped pink tulip and thought it especially pretty with the sun glowing in it.


Hope you have enjoyed this tiptoe through the tulips with me.

Blessings,

Sharon

Edible Flowers

Have you ever had edible flowers? I've had a couple salads with pansies or nasturtiums in them. I must say that I prefer looking at flowers rather than eating them, unless they are delicious sugar cookies like these that I made for one of Cole's classes.

More Tulips as Promised

One of my tulips after the rain. It's so neat that we can have rain and then incredible sunshine in the same day. Sometimes it even volleys back and forth several times during the day. You just never know what you'll get.



This lovely tulip photograph was taken in south Eugene. I had to take my car into Les Schwab to get a nail removed from my tire so I had 45 minutes to kill. Good thing I was on my way up to Hendrick's Park and had my camera in the trunk. Levi and I just walked around the neighborhood near 18th and Willamette and admired the spring flowers. Will share more later.

Blessings,

Sharon

Credits: Elegant WordArt by Bethany ("Kissed" word art), Jodi McNally ("tiptoe" word art)

Celebrate

Tonight we had a belated celebration of my birthday. We went with Tad's family to PF Chang's. YUM!

Just finished sending out my Flower of the Day e-mail and I was pretty long winded in it. I guess I just don't have anything else to say right now. Here's another are a few of the tulip photos. I have many more, just need to have time to upload them and share them with you.

The white tulip is one of mine. These open out pretty wide rather than stay in the cup shape. Love the intense lemon yellow in the center.


These red and yellow tulips were in a yard in south Eugene. Beautiful color combination.

These tulips grow in an old wheelbarrow in my backyard. I liked how they are glowing in this photo. I'm going to have to add more bulbs for next year's crop.

The tulip at the top of this post is also one of mine. I have a ring of these around the base of a dogwood tree. I'm crossing my fingers that the tree will bloom this year. Neither of our dogwoods have produced many blooms in the past couple years.


Blessings,

Sharon

Credits: Katie Pertiet (Celebrate word art) Unknown artist for the Laugh word art - the file information was lost with the crash of my hard drive.

Tulip of the Day

I'll bet that most of the time you view a tulip from the side. You see a beautiful cup shaped flower on a graceful stem. I am fascinated by the patterns on the inside of the tulip. They vary from star shapes to triangles and look as though they are part of a kaleidoscope. Sometimes it's midnight black, sometimes a dark blue, and other times a light color. Next time you see tulips blooming, get up close and look at the centers.


I still have lots of tulip photos to share, so come back and visit again.

Enjoy!

Sharon

Blessings

Have you counted your blessings lately? If you have trouble coming up with any (or many) read Psalm 103 and you'll be reminded. I'm sure that if I actually sat down with a piece of paper to write down all my blessings, I'd have to get out several sheets of paper. Do I remember that all of the time? No. Sometimes I get sidetracked, like anyone else, and think about "poor 'ole me". Today, however, I choose to think about blessings. Sunshine is definitely near the top of my list today.

Last night my little Levi (OK, so he's 7 and not so little anymore) blessed me BIG time! When I went to pick him up from AWANA he was pretty excited. It was "store night" and the kids got to spend all the points they had earned on prizes from the store. Levi had a small Lego set along with his Bible and AWANA handbook in his right hand. His left hand was clutching the back of his vest. I admired the Lego set that he got from the store and he told me that he also got something else but that I couldn't see it. So he walked all the way out to the car with his left hand concealing something under the back of his vest. When we got to the car he told me that he also chose something for me! He presented me with a case for my iPod. He said that when he saw it in the store he thought that I would like it since I have an iPod. He spent 30 of his 101 points to get it for me. That was certainly a blessing. (Some of you have also recently been recipients of his generosity, so you know what it's like.) He sure does like to give things to people.



It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL here this afternoon. I got outside with my camera and took LOTS of photos of tulips, both mine and the neighbors'. Today's photo was taken at my neighbors' house, they have orange, yellow and red tulips, colors that I don't typically grow. You can look forward to seeing more of the tulip photos.

Blessings,

Sharon

Credits: Dreamer's Magic Designs (clipping mask for photo), Natasha Whitely (background paper), Katie Pertiet (word art)

Life is a Journey

Enjoy your journey!

Credits: Elegant WordArt by Bethany (word art), Kristine Peacock (frame and ribbon), Carjazi Designs (background paper), Nicole Young Designs (clock and corner element)