“God is an artist of Nature;
He paints in colors, so rare,
The bursting bud in the Springtime,
The lovely trees everywhere.”
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham
“Nature’s beautiful dancers — flowers, water, leaves
Dancing to the music of God’s sweet breeze.”
~Terri Guillemets
“Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.”
~William Wordsworth
Winter is getting long. Spring arrives on Monday, but the forecast is still cold. Today we took a drive to one of our favorite farm and feed stores. On the way home we entered our town from a route we hadn’t been on in quite a while. We were surprised to find ourselves passing a rather large gathering of goats on a small farm. The goats seemed to be watched over by one lone goose. I’ve heard geese are good at guarding property. Hmmm…what about that pesky groundhog and his little buddy that always devastate my garden? What about those cute bunnies that chomp down my flowers? Would a goose be a good idea? Now is the time to decide as geese are available through mail order. Any thoughts from my blogging friends? Has anyone raised as goose as a pet/watchgoose? I’d love to hear from you.
Betwixt and between the snowstorm and the beginning of the melt, was an enchanted period of ice-bejeweled landscapes and sunshine. The birds, exhausted after battling the wind and precipitation for food and foothold, seemed to find a few moments rest amid the glimmer, or should I say glamour, of icy diamonds.
In the past robins were one of the harbingers of Spring, but I see them all through the year now. I wonder if this one is scolding himself for not flying to warmer states.
The mourning dove seems to be resigned to waiting out the bad weather.
A gorgeous lady cardinal surveys the bird feeders atop her perch of pine.
Wow! The brilliant sunshine showed off this grackle’s bluish hood. What a handsome gent. I’m going to name him as my answer to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge of a view from the side. When we picture birds in our mind, it is usually their side view we imagine.
This grackle is beautiful both ways.
I’m awed by the patience and skill it takes to create a doily. It has quickly become a lost art in most of the world. Twenty years ago, give or take a bit, when I was more ambitious, I crocheted two easy doilies. They took a lot of time, and if I remember correctly, several times I had to unravel a mistake and try again. I’ve walked by doilies at yard sales and thrift stores with hardly a glance in recent years. Doilies have fallen out of fashion in today’s decorating. I think I am going to reconsider that decision and start to buy some of the exquisite work now and then. Just like old postcards I like to hold them in my hands and imagine the life of the needlework artist.
This doily of mine recently became soiled. The stain lifted right out when I soaked it in warm water with a little Dawn detergent and peroxide. After soaking, you must block the doily back into shape by gently smoothing/pulling it and drying flat.
I came across a few recipes for cleaning vintage pieces of needlework. If you have a stained heirloom, perhaps one will work for you: Cleaning Old Doilies
Definitely a day to stay indoors. We lost electricity for an hour, it’s back on, but I wonder for how long. I’m posting quickly while I still have Internet access. The snow turned to rain as predicted, but it’s changing over once again to ice; I hear it pelting my windows. The wind is turning my pine trees into storm dancers. They move so gracefully in the driving wind. Hopefully our electrical lines will hold and I’ll be back with a post tomorrow.
I listened to the weather report this morning and know Chicago is experiencing snow. Their weather system will soon head our way and meet up with another big storm moving up the coast line creating a powerful Nor’easter. Snow is on the way.
The forsythia bursting into bloom just a few days ago has bowed its yellow blossoms in defeat, closing their cuplike petals against the cold and coming precipitation.
Only a few days ago I walked the neighborhood sidewalks with my grand-daughters, searching for periwinkles in bloom. We found a few, but now those brave little flowers will soon be buried under inches of snow. No one wants to experience a record-setting snowstorm so close to Spring. My wish is for just a few inches of the beautiful white stuff and then glorious sunshine prompting a quick meltaway.
The daffodils look like they know what is coming and have already given up. Later on, I’ll go out and once again cut anything that is blooming, rather than leaving pretty flowers outdoors to languish under the snow.
I was outside on my front lawn last night, camera pointed toward the sky. I haven’t taken part in Skywatch Friday for quite a while. Last night’s sky was the perfect opportunity to create a post. The eerie sky was the forerunner of a winter storm. A chilly mix is falling even as I write these words…rain mixed with snow. I went outside before breakfast, dressed in my nightclothes, and picked a big bouquet of daffodils; I wasn’t willing to allow all the beautiful yellow blooms to be crushed beneath the weight of falling snow.
I repost this technique for sowing smaller garden seeds each year. There is little waste or thinning out with this method. The sprouts do not develop damping-off disease. My only change from previous years is sowing in the bottoms of gallon milk cartons. I easily made four holes in the bottom of each with a paring knife thrust through the bottom first, then a large pair of scissors inserted in the cut and twisted…Voila, a perfect drainage hole.
These seedlings only have one to two pairs of true leaves and already the colors and leaf shapes are unique. As they grow the colors will develop even further; I have high hopes for the best crop of coleus ever. Updates will follow throughout the growing season.
Here is the technique I use to plant coleus and other small seeds:
This method of planting might seem tedious, but I have tried many ways of sowing tiny seeds and feel this is the very best. I wish I could remember where I first heard of the process so I could give the proper source credit for the idea.
I sow small seeds sparingly using the sharpened point of a pencil. I dip the pencil point into water and touch it to one seed. The dampness grabs hold of the seed. I then touch the seed to the wet seed starter mix in the flat, and the seed adheres to the wet soil. I repeat this process between sixty and seventy times per flat.
I use wire garbage bag ties, marked in segments with magic marker, to guide me in the placement of the seeds.
After I sow a row of seeds I remove the wire guide so I don’t double sow a row.
The next step is a gentle, all-over spray of water to seal the seeds to the wet soil.
I then cover the flat with the lid. It is gratifying to see it instantly steam up with warmth and humidity.
I have good luck with the sprouting by placing the planted flat of coleus seed on top of my refrigerator or near, but not on, a heating vent.
This method works well for all small seeds.
Cornflower Blue Collage: Morning Glories, Baby Bird, Runway Bay, Jamaica, Yellow Swallowtail Wing Markings
Yesterday’s post was lovely, today I’m going to sling around a little dirt. I cooked up a batch of red beet eggs and had over a dozen egg peelings left over. I decided to add them to my Square Foot Gardens for a calcium boost. I whirled the egg shells in the blender with some water, but decided next time to use the food processor. When I poured the water off, all the shells were stuck around the blade at the bottom of the blender. The food processor would have given me a dry powder, easier to sprinkle on the garden. I made another mistake, I poured the water down the drain. GrowVeg.com has a great article on using eggshells for plants: Using Eggshells in the Garden. I’m going to start saving all my boiled egg water for houseplants.
Mistakes aside, I worked what I had into a section of the garden with a trowel.
In the next few days I’ll add a bit of organic garden soil, water it in, and then next week, near St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll plant some garden peas. Spring is definitely on the horizon.
When you see the tips of twigs covered with the swell of buds, cut a few and bring indoors, in a week or so they will reward you with sweet blooms or tiny leaves. Spring is on the way!
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”~Psalm 46:10
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”
~Psalm 55:22
We had a quick snow squall blow through yesterday; brilliant sunshine preceded and followed the showers of white. I grabbed my camera and ran for the path in the woods. The last few weeks of winter photos have all looked the same, a photo in flying snow would be something new. Before I could reach the broken tree stump where I take the photo each week, the snow stopped, the sun emerged, and my desire for capturing the snow squall with my camera was denied. But wait…dazzling in the brilliant sunshine, snowflakes, gathered on old spider webs strung between barren twigs, resembled blossoms of Queen Anne’s Lace.
The blue sky with the snow-laden spider web was the perfect choice for the Color Your World – 120 Days of Crayola/Sky Blue challenge. It also worked out well for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Looking Up At Things.
The moral of my tale: When things don’t go the way you hoped, look around, there might be a blessing, somewhere close by, in disguise.
Easter is the perfect occasion to find egg trays in local dollar stores. These segmented plastic plates make a perfect paint palette.
Each egg shape will hold a paint color; the center well is a perfect mixing area.
Watercolor tip: Let the colors mingle by gently tilting plate. The color will have natural variegation and look more natural when brushed on the paper.
Coleus are one of my favorite garden plants to grow from seed, but that is another post, perhaps later in the week. This small cutting is rooting on my windowsill now. Did you know there is a rumor that cuttings root faster in green glass with sun shining through it? I don’t know if it has been proven, but why not try if you have green glass around the house. (Perhaps a green soda bottle would work too!)
The coleus I’m rooting for Spring, is a cutting from a rooted and transplanted cutting I took in the Autumn. That’s a bit of a tongue-twister, isn’t it? I took about a dozen cuttings of my favorite coleus before the first frost, and they are rooted and growing strong on my windowsills. They will be replanted outside in pots in the first few weeks of May and be grown beneath the pine trees in the ivy beds. Coleus thrive in this area and add a lot of color to the gardens.
I’m partial to the light yellow colors that several of my coleus have developed over the years, and tend to plant and root more of these each season. Rooting coleus cuttings is easy, cut a sprig from the mother plant 4 -6 inches tall, place in water, and wait a few weeks for roots to develop. When the roots fill the container, plant in potting soil. I have great luck doing nothing more than these easy steps.
I enjoy taking part in the WordPress Daily Prompts. My prompt word today is quicken. The Merriam-Webster definition of quicken is to make alive. Here are a few examples of ‘The Quickening of March’ in my area of Southern New Jersey.
A Robin Singing…
Skunk Cabbage Emerging…
Catkins Dangling…
Trees Budding in a Blush of Pink…
Wildflowers Blossoming…
