In my yard-en

Its a jungle out there!! We've been getting good rain these past few weeks and everything outside is growing non-stop. We added a new bed on the back corner of our lot. It does make mowing a little more difficult but we are hoping those boxwood and the rose-of-sharon will get large enough to provide a little bit of a break for the wind and snow that howls through the wind-tunnel that is the back side of our subdivision. It is nice to put things in the ground that we won't see reach their full potential. Most of the flowers and many of the shrubs are enjoying their fifth summer with us, so they are plenty full and will need dividing this fall, but the plants in the new bed will grow, grow, grow long after we are gone.

We are working on our second batch of sparrows in the nest box just outside the kitchen window. They peep all day long. The noise of the patio slider makes them pop up to the house hole but if I get close enough to get a picture, down they go. It took me days to get this bitty beak bump in my camera.

How does your garden grow?

Yarn Along - a big adventure

My new kitting project hit the road with us this week as we headed camping to Holly River State Park. I only had a little bit of time to work on it in the truck before the roads became too swirly for me to be able to keep it together.

We planned to tent camp but hunkered down in a cabin for the first night as the rain poured all through the evening and into the night. The cabin boasted a bent twig rocker that I swear was made to fit my aching back. Julian read and I knitted by the light of our fire. It was a lovely getaway.

I have decided that, for my next project, I'm going to do the Light and Up pattern but finish it with a picot edging like the Eiku (both found on Ravelry). I wasn't really sold on this yarn, but I added it to my stash when it was on clearance about a year ago. I must say that the longer I look at it and the more sunshine it gets, the more I fall in love with it.

The pattern uses sock weight yarn on a #8 needle, so I am struggling a bit with feeling like it is coming apart in my hands, since I am usually a tight knitter. It is so soft and smooth in my hand though, even just the little bit I've got going, and it is working up very quickly.

This week's outing has inspired me to check out A Walk in the Woods. We are in need of a new bedtime reading book and we've gotten into quite the habit of reading about food and thinking of how woefully hungry we are! So, perhaps we can change that this week.

Linking up with Ginny.

In Bloom

Full of loveliness - our little kingdom is. The only problem is that its all moving too fast. I can feel the days slipping by too quickly. Summer is in the air and before I know it, the dog days will be here and we will loathe stepping outside for even the smallest of chores, but for now... for now we will drink it in.

Yesterday afternoon was spent on the patio, under the umbrella where the breeze kept things cool. After three hours, I finally noticed that our baby sparrow wasn't peeping - I panicked! What had happened to him? He is ALWAYS peeping from the inside of the birdhouse, right outside my kitchen window. Later yesterday evening I saw him - a fledgling! He was resting on our patio chair and getting a snack from mamma.

The peas are scrambling up the netting I placed for them this past week. The berries are plumper everyday. Cilantro and dill are taking over and I am pulling them both like weeds. We added sage to the garden this year: common and pineapple. Any recommendations/recipes for the pineapple?

I am anxious for rain and today is promised to give us some showers - but you know how weather goes. We are at the point where we will have to start dragging the house out each night if the plants in containers don't get a good drink soon. We had a quick shower this morning when I snapped some photos of the berries and sage, but the sun is shining bright as ever now. Bring on the thunder storms! Bring on the drizzle. I'll take it any way I can get it.

6th Anniversary - Watoga Arboretum

With Sunday morning's breakfast, Julian prayed the rain would hold off until we got everything packed. It did just that... and then it let loose. We had planned to visit the arboretum on our way out and we figured, what's the use worrying about rain, everything we own is a damp, humid mess already. So when it started sprinkling at the start of the two mile hike, we pressed onward. About a quarter of the way in, we were anxious for the shelter, as the sprinkle had turned into an all-out pour. We reached it (about five minutes later than we needed to but for the sake of the story, I'll say...) just in the nick of time.

We played a card game in the shelter to wait out the storm [cause I'm good like that on the packing cards]. Then forged a 1/4 mile sea of stinging nettles, the likes of which I've never seen. It made me glad for my ankle length skirt despite looking like a plain person with my tennis shoes on. Oh, I was so thankful.

The trail had many beautiful stone stairwells.

Rhododendrons were our makeshift shelter - thanks to the climate/elevation, some of them were still in bloom. 

The long awaited shelter

Sea of stinging nettles

I was not very happy with the person at Watoga who is supposed to look in on the arboretum and manage the trails. Some of them were impassable, and the nettles were downright miserable. Then we came upon the part of the park that had obviously had derecho damage and I was much more sympathetic. Whole swaths of mature forest were destroyed. Come to find out, this part of WV is still putting life back together after both the derecho and Hurricane Sandy. 

This tree had fallen and taken the stones with it.

Obvious devastation of forest and trail

A section about as big as a football field had been basically leveled.

My favorite things about this hike: the incredible moss, which I didn't photograph because it was pouring; the stone steps; the shelter; my new found knowledge of stinging nettles. 

Next up: Beartown...

Pressed flowers

It's been years since the old aunt of my childhood friend showed me the joys of pressing flowers. She always made a collection of greeting cards to sell at our church's fall festival. She would even bring the flowers, cards, and contact paper (I hate contact paper) and let each of the children make his or her own.

Last week I was reminded of this and inspired by a picture on Ginny's blog. Julian and I popped into Lowe's on our hookie Friday and grabbed the wing nuts and bolts and had the time to put it together today. I insisted on having a 6 in. bolt. We had quite the chuckle when we realized exactly how long 6 in. is, so now I have the tall order of pressing enough flowers at one time to prove to him the value of the extra length.

{Bloom Day} May 2013

Linking up with Bloom Day May 2013, Storey Publishing.

*****

Top: False Indigo, Heirloom Iris, Hardy Geranium

Mid: Knock-Out Rose, Candytuft, Heirloom Iris

Bottom: Coreopsis

Arboretum

The Core Arboretum is named after a WVU botanist, Earl L. Core. It is made up of 91 acres between the busiest road in town and the Monongahela River - a total escape left largely to the whims of nature and not much more. We are blessed to have this very neat space right in our "backyard" but we've only visited twice in three years.They had a wildflower tour on April 21 and we totally planned to go... and then it was April 22 and we'd forgotten. At least there were a few wild larkspurs left there to greet us.

I am subscribed to get eBird updates on birds that are sighted in my county and for several weeks now, there have been reports of wood ducks at the arboretum so on Sunday afternoon we headed out with a backpack holding the bird book, binoculars, bottled water and a camera. We looked and looked, but never found the ducks. Nevertheless, we had a lovely time.