Fertilizer Friday & Windy Weather

 I woke up this morning to the sound of high winds roaring in the woods across the road. No storm in sight, just a lot of wind, blowing something in or out.  And away.... gazing out the window, I saw that much of our recycling put out by the road last night was now merrily making a quick escape down the road, tumbling and rolling at a high rate of speed.  I grabbed my winter coat and my mittens and set off in hot pursuit with Teddy and Pudding dogs in the lead.  We managed to capture all the wayward recyclables here before going up to Mom's and putting her recycling out.  She wasn't as silly and didn't leave it out overnight which was a good idea. 

Walking in this weather is truly an experience.  With the wind at my back it felt as if I had a heavy hand propelling me forward and the dogs and I covered the 1/4 mile to Mom's in record time.  Coming home was another ordeal entirely.  Ann stopped in for a visit and gave the dogs and I a ride home from Mom's which was really appreciated. 

Another Fertilizer Friday and I still don't have much to share flower-wise.  I tried to take some pictures this morning but the heavy winds nearly toppled me over and the flowers wouldn't hold still for their close-ups.

I guess I should not say they wouldn't hold still, that's being unfair to the flowers.....they couldn't hold still because the wind is so fierce.  This has certainly been a wild month weather wise all over the country. 

The crocus flowers are getting rather tattered, but that's to be expected since they were up and blooming in mid-March and then buried under 17" of snow in early April and then defrosted again only to be hammered by fierce thunderstorms and now assailed by 40 mph winds.  Isn't it amazing that something as delicate as a flower can last through all that abuse?

I managed to plant most of my flower seeds this past weekend and Yippee!!

Look:

Do you see it?  No, not the brown popsicle stick in the upper right hand corner, but in the middle of the picture there's a teeny, tiny green thing with three leaves?  That's an 'Avalanche Grape' Petunia.  I wonder how much it will grow by June 1st?  I hope it grows a LOT....Karen needs some color in the gardens.  We're off to such a late start this year, my greenhouse and plants look nothing like Tootsies!

Ornamental Millet 'Jester'

The millet was planted on Sunday and boinged out of the ground overnight almost. I've been starting flowers for years, but it still never fails to amaze me how fast plants grow, especially with bottom heat and natural light.  

Inca II Marigolds

Looks like I'll have about 2500 annuals this year, which is about average.  Every year I say I'm going to cut back but then the seed catalogs come in and well, you know how that goes.  I sit with a notebook and write down everything I see that appeals to me and before I know it, I've got a greenhouse full.  Now I hope the green house can stay on the ground and not fly away in all this wind.

 So many other blogs are showing off their gorgeous spring blooms and  here I am with a few puny crocus pictures....which is probably boring people to tears.  But wait!  I do have some daffodils blooming right up tight against the house in the only sheltered area they could find:

The daffodil on the left looks a bit depressed, doesn't it?  Head hanging low, wondering what it got itself   into, "This is Spring??"  The three daffodils on the right seem to be very curious about their downhearted friend. (Ok, ok, it's official.   Now I'm writing about the emotional state of flowers?  I'm spending WAY too much time alone.) 

Somebody will tell me to go jump in a lake or something.  Good thing there's one handy.....

and wowwweeeeee, do we have WATER in it this year!  The water table is higher than ever, too high actually, we'll probably have to pump this down a bit so the shrubs that are nearly submerged don't drown.

So, this weekend's weather is not shaping up to be real pleasant, but we'll have to make the best of it.  Carl just got the mail and the last of my seeds that were on backorder are now here, so that will be my job for the afternoon.

Carl is home by noon on Fridays and maybe since it's so unpleasant outside (yup, they're calling for more snow....but I said I'd take snow over tornadoes and I meant it!)  maybe he will work on soldering our latest lamp shade while I plant flowers.  We'll keep each other company. (And I'll spend less time wondering what my daffodils are thinking.)

Peonies in the SKY!!  

I took the three repeats outside and took a picture of them before sticking them on the form for soldering.

 We're not sure how this lamp will turn out but it reminds me of something.  I'm showing my age here, but I remember my Mom (and ok, me, too) wearing hats shaped like this to church at Easter time.  Anyone else remember that time period?  Ok, so I'm old and moldy.

Peonies in my Easter Bonnet!

Time to get some lunch made and move on with our planting and soldering plans. 

Now, head on over to Tootsie's and Fertilizer Friday to see some really beautiful gardens!

'Til next time.......Karen