Flowers showing,
Grasses growing,
Tuesday warm and sunny!
Then the beastie,
Blew in gusty,
Took sun out – not funny!
Ten straight hours,
Blizzard snow showers,
No trace of life to be seen.
The next morning at eight,
Sun broke thru the gate,
Leaving all white and no green.
But, Colorado this is,
Sun, rain, hail and blizz,
No worries ere last long here.
One day is seventies,
The next is thirties,
Just keep your snow shovel near!
The End.
Or The Beginning?
Sincerely,
The Bad Poets Society
– LOL-
This one is dedicated to my cousin Carol Jo in Wisconsin (and, of course, all rest of you – family, friend and frozen). I just now (2 pm MST) took these pics from our front yard:
The Honeysuckle is a bloomin,
The Iris and Mint are a poppin.
Tulips are a growin,
And the Lilly’s almost a showin.
Then there was this:
Late last fall I just shoved some Spice Bush shoots into this pot in hopes of transplanting them – last year. Well, best-laid plans being what they are, I didn’t get to them.
I just now, for grins and giggles, took a peek at the pot and the silly things have leaves! WHAT’S UP WITH THAT??? Open pot, left over from last fall, been sitting out all winter; yet they survived and are THRIVING?? I guess our friend is right – we must be in a blessed spot when it comes to mother nature.
Now, for those of you that remember Night Gallery the series…I/we are now officially the Old Lady in the garden, “Everything I plant grows!” Oops, I even lost ½ my finger (in 2014 – different story), but I forgot to get it from my doctor, save it and plant it so I could re-grow. I know, I know…sounds sick but the show was fantastic!
A Happy Garden is a Healthy Garden! Hee hee
The back of one arm is all black and blue already. Pretty sure part of one butt cheek is also. This is what I get for forgetting to wear green today (pretty sure mom is laughing her butt off watching this from heaven – LOL).
I had been thinking about it all week, my only nephew son’s birthday was yesterday, and I remember that on purpose because it is the day before St. Patty’s Day. I reminded my grandson to wear his St Patty’s day shirt – and me – nooo (duh)!
Moms side of the family is mostly Irish, and it has always been a big deal. We have also been eating corned beef and cabbage up the wazoo (mainly because we love it, but any excuse will do to have more – yum!).
But you forget just one time and – OUCH! Oh, idiot me.
So this quickie little note is just to apologize to mom, my ancestors and all my friends that have been so nice as to remind me – I forgot!
(Please don’t send the Angry Leprechauns after me – eek!! Hee hee)
We spend the weekend cleaning up the yard. I say weekend, but it was really just Sunday. Everything we touched on Saturday, just blew somewhere else. (Some days I get really tired of the wind – grrr! Sure, now-but in a couple of months I will be praying for a breeze – LOL!) While cleaning up, I was not even thinking about all the “little critters” I was messing with. They decided to remind me!
This was on my hallway wall when I woke up:
Our first Miller Moth – oh joy (she says sarcastically)! I have extremely thick kinky hair and the buggers love to get stuck in it! Nothing makes you say yuck faster than hearing the crunching of trying to get one untangled from your head – ugh!
I had placed all my dusty/dirty clothes into the wash last night. I knew I was kicking up some old weeds when I was mowing some spots, but I just didn’t realize how many bugs I was scaring up as well. One of these was at the bottom of my washer when the load was done:
Soldier Bug – good Stink Bug – BAD Squash Bug – BAD
I say one of these, as it was so mushed from the wash that I couldn’t tell which type it was? The first – Soldier Bug – is a goodie, but hard to tell from the Stink Bug (baddie). The Squash Bug (also a baddie) has a completely different look but, when it is mush in your Kleenex, looks the same as the others (yucky!!)
The Soldier bug is also called a “Spinney” soldier bug, and it does look a lot more jagged than its counterpart, the stink bug. Oh, and if you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity to get nailed by a Stink Bug, you will understand why it is named that – NASTY! It is definitely a very different smell – blah!
My point for you all to ponder is – was it dead or alive before it went into the wash? I have seen tons of Box Elder Beetles, a few flies, wasps, honey bees (this one is normal as we have boxes that stay on our property year around – think it helps to bring them out early?), and just yesterday a Ladybug! I just didn’t think these three bugs would be out until it actually got warmer and stayed (like maybe June – haha, wishful thinking)?
So I have already started my “natural bug defense training” on my other blog, www.gardenglowsbydesign.com/blog. My plan on that one is to figure out which are the worst bugs out there, and how many different natural ways there are to either keep them at bay or destroy them all together. We are a live-and-let-live kinda farm, but offense is the best defense. So, ugly nasties beware – I am on the hunt for you all this year!
(And yes – I do look like this when I am chasing down bad bugs in the gardens! LOL)
This morning was a wakeup call for me and my attempts at taking pictures. There had to be a couple of thousand Snow Geese flying north over out little farm and these are my shots:
Pretty pitiful – but there are 2 major things wrong pertaining to these pictures:
1) Winning a great Nikon D3200 Camera with extra DX lens does not make one an instant expert photographer
2) All the Snow Geese flying north on March 3, 2016 is way abby-normal!
The first one I can fix by actually taking classes (I think they even have some online under Nikon?) to learn how to take better pics. I could also splurge on a neat little video camera (Walmart has several to choose from, at pretty reasonable prices), then I could have also shared the cool sounds they were making with you.
The second one is the thought that worries me a bit. This winter has been way to different, and I don’t think it’s just here in Colorado. It’s normal to get 70 degrees one day and 30 the next from October through January, but to get 60+ and stay there IN FEBRUARY – and no Freeze at all – now that’s just not normal. We prep all year for the one to two week period of below freezing day and night, not this year.
Have I also told you that I am an amateur Nature Enthusiast? I say amateur because I have never taken formal classes on the subject; however, I have lived on a working farm most of my life (My folks purchased the family farm when I was about 2, and my sister was born after we moved there so she has been at it since birth).
I am fascinated with all things nature and natural. The critters that show up unexpectedly in our yard (can you say opossum!). The deer that come out of the woods almost every sunset to frolic in the lower pasture (especially love watching in spring as they chase each other all around till dark). The increasing numbers of good bugs that are showing up here every year (Praying Mantis, Ladybugs, Monarch Butterflies – and some are endangered species). We do not use chemicals of any kind on our property, so maybe we have become the Favorite Bug Restaurant for the good guys (I can only hope!)? Who knows why they come, I’m just glad the come.
The numbers of sightings have increase about 10-fold since we purchased our little property in 2000. Then again we cannot take all the credit, the first 3 years we were here were the worst drought years Colorado had seen in 100+ years. That may have been a contributing factor (oh sure, blame the drought). However, all I know is that they are here now and in growing numbers.
So the geese flying north in masses makes me wonder what old (yes she is “old”) Mother Nature is up to now?
Is she in a playful mood and deciding to bring a nice early spring? Is she in a vengeful mood and going to trick us into thinking it is nice, then zap us with a wicked deep freeze in April (after everything is in bloom of course – happened before and not long ago.)? I cannot blame her for wanting revenge, we the people have abused her for too long. Some of us (wish there were more- boo hoo) have actually been trying to help her all our lives.
I guess there’s no way to predict what she’s up too, so we will just keep doing what we do – garden naturally, and hope for the best!
Maybe I will put a totem up for her in the gardens to try to appease her – how’s this?
(click here if you don’t get the Squirrel bit)
I maybe oldish but there are many benefits to age these days. One of the biggest benefits of my age is memory. No, I am not joking here (but it is funny – LOL), the adage is as you get older you lose your memory. Well, yes and no on that one.
I subscribe to MNN (Mother Nature Network), and one of their recent articles made me think: 7 Signs we are too dependent on technology. The sub-headline is the question: Remember when you actually knew your friends’ phone numbers? What remember? I still do know most all of my family and closest friends phone numbers, and even some addresses. Maybe it’s the math geek in me (or my OCD on lists of all kinds), but I have always been good at numbers. Who would have thought that I had any space left up there? (Hee, Hee!)
They then go on to talk about how much we depend on our internet, buy things through it blah-blah-blah…same old stuff. The other items on the list were also things that I had heard before and knew… BUT… the 3rd question really hit home for me. You don’t live in the moment. It was right! I have been so worried about getting the “picture” I was actually missing out on a large amount of other things going on around me.
I needed that shot of the bird in the bush, but missed the silly walk day my grandson and sister were doing. Those types of memories only happen in that rare moment of time, and then are gone forever.
Now, just today 2-29-16, I went so cleverly to the local Post Office to mail a simple package to my other sister in Aurora – and what dummy put the wrong zip code on the label – yep, that would be me (yes, I am laughing hysterically at myself as I type this)! Got the name, street address, city and state just perfect – no cheating with an address book for me. Then slapped on MY zip code without even batting an eye. Took getting it all the way to the very smart Postal Lady to figure out just how “duh” I had been. At least, we both got a great laugh out of it (she had to point it out to me twice – double duh, for not paying attention).
So my Pre-Saint Pats day resolution (yep ½ Irish and proud of it – not sure mom would be right now – ha, ha, ha) – LIVE IN THE MOMENT – YA IDIOT! Stop my swirling brain long enough to get what’s going on right in front of me.
Funny, I still remember a time when I used to be proud of thinking and doing several things at one time – Multi Tasking – not no more, apple core – who’s your friend – ME! (Yes, that last bit is a Disney reference – check it out here! Hee, Hee) OH SURE – I remember the quote from a childhood memory, but can’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday? Ok, I watch too many cartoons, so shoot me!
HELBERG FARM STORIES 