9 June 2015 -- What's Blooming in June

June is a beautiful time. Whoever said "and the desert shall bloom like a rose" may have been referring to Utah. There is something about the dry climate that makes roses absolutely magnificent here. You don't find black spot or mildew, just gorgeous roses. And better yet, everyone has roses. You cannot drive anywhere without seeing roses. Climbing roses, shrub roses, tea roses and right now they are all in their glory. Not only would you be hard pressed to find a single yard without at least one rose bush, but roses are also a major feature in corporate and small business landscapes. There is a dental office not to far from me that must have fifty rose bushes out front. It is just fabulous. 

My paternal grandmother loved roses. In addition to her own rose garden which was about ten feet wide and lined one side of a long driveway, she also had a second bed with all the roses she received for Mother's Day over the many years. What was I saying about apples? 

As I work on my yard, I have plans to add more roses as well. My only criteria is that they must be fragrant. 

But right now, the yard is heating up. The yellow shrub rose is in full bloom and smells wonderful. Its companion, the Austrian Copper rose is struggling as the deer ate most of it this winter. I will have to move it to a more protected spot.

  
The iris are peaking. I dug a few rhizomes out of an empty lot. They have rewarded me by putting on quite a show. And the deer don't bother iris at all.



 

The oriental poppies are just starting to come on. I love how this bright orange complements all the tools on my deer fence. 

 Several years ago Jack and I took a class on propagating native plants from seed. They are reseeding happily.  Here are firecracker penstemon (red) and orange globe mallow.  And a different pink mallow.

 Three years ago I planted some foxtail lilies. This year I have thirty bloom stalks and they are pretty spectacular. They are just starting to bloom and the bees love them--even better! These stalks are almost 6 feet tall. Definitely show stoppers.

 

The wisteria is doing well this year. Seems like every other year I get a really good bloom. This particular variety has a smell that is reminiscent of hotdogs.

I have been weeding. Bindweed, a pernicious type of morning glory is trying to take over my yard. It has a single extremely long tap root. If you break the root it just sends up more plant. Makes me crazy. 

This year I seem to have fallen behind in weeding and planting, but I'm doing what I can to catch up. Finally have all my pots planted. It will be fun to see them fill out and spill over the pots. 

I loved my flower arrangements in these porch pots last year, but they weren't bright enough to stand up to the  green background of the ivy growing on the house, so this year I opted for bright oranges and reds.

Since my shop has metal siding with a nice rusty patina I went for a contrast with cooler colors. The green plant on the ground is that nasty bindweed. More weeding.

And totally unrelated to what's blooming, unless it has to do with what's coming up...

My brother and a friend of his moved the last press out of the basement and up into my shop. I'm pretty darned happy to have it where it can be used. This press is a Pearl No. 11. It is sitting next to the much smaller Pearl No. 1. 

Even taking the fly wheel off, then taking the press off the stand, the pieces were almost too heavy for them to lift. But they persevered and even got it all reassembled. 


It is kind of fun to sit back and realize that I am finally getting my life a little more organized. 

 

3 June 2015 - Apples and Relativity

Today is my Pop's birthday. He would have been 89. While he is usually hovering around in the back of my mind, today he was there most of the day. Which may be why I had my epiphany on family traits. 

It all started when I was texting yet another cutest-cat-ever photo to my brother. He and I have a friendly rivalry over whose cat does the funniest thing or sleeps in the best positions. As I hit send, a memory hit me. 

Right after I graduated from high school, I went to visit my aunt in San Antonio for two weeks. We drove to Austin to visit with my grandfather's two aunts, Bessie and Bertie. Bertie had married but it didn't last and Bessie never married. After Bertie's divorce they lived together for years in a little house surrounded by fig trees and their succession of beloved cats. 

They were thrilled to have visitors and set up a card table in the backyard complete with a luncheon cloth and matching napkins. After lunch they pulled out huge photo albums of their cats. Pictures of cats sleeping in the sink on a hot day. Cats being cute, cats hunting, cats with mice on porch, cats being cats. They doted on their cats. I remember thinking "I don't think this will ever be me."  Oops! 

I, too, have many many pictures of all the pets I have loved over the years--being sweet, being funny, being bad. You name it. I have large digital albums instead of snapshots in a photo album. Same difference. 

If you consider me the apple, I don't think I fell. I think I am firmly attached to the family tree. It could be nature or nurture or just plain human traits, but I continue to manifest my family members in what comes out of my mouth (or goes in), in my likes, dislikes and behaviors. What I do and how I do it mostly spring from the family.

I had been chewing on this for part of the day. My brother stopped by to help me with some heavy lifting and organizing. We were trying to move stuff around in the garage to make more storage room. He was pushing me to get of rid of stuff too, which is always a good thing. 

He came to four large dishpacks from when I was moving in and wondered what was in them. Er, um. More boxes?  He just looked at me and asked "Are you channeling Hazel?"  Hazel was our maternal grandmother and after she died I can't even begin to tell you how many boxes filled with empty boxes we found. Shoe boxes filled with small boxes were the most prevalent. You never know when you are going to need a box. 

I had to laugh. It was one more branch on my tree. 

Yes, I broke all the boxes down and put them in the recycle bin. 



 



 

6 May 2015 - I Love May

While I do not have a favorite month, I find that each has its own beauty and charm, May holds a special place in my heart. No matter where I have lived, or what was planted in the gardens, in May they always looked fabulous.  

But May. May is the explosive month. Trees burst into magnificent works of art garbed in glorious reds, pinks or white.  Perennials erupt out of the ground then push up bloom stalks and buds. The oriental poppies and peonies are covered with huge buds just starting to open their sepals and show a little color. My old fashioned shrub rose is covered in buds. It will become a yellow waterfall very shortly.

And there is nothing quite like the fragrances of May. Lilacs, honeysuckle, chokecherries, lilies of the valley, and roses. Walk into the yard and you get an olfactory smorgasbord. The lilacs and honeysuckle are the two over-riding scents, but all you need to do is just walk under the chokecherry to move from sweet intoxication into almond infused air.  Heady stuff. 

With the rain helping the newly leafed-out trees and burgeoning posies,  my yard is looking green and park-like. In May the leaves are a new soft green and absolutely perfect. Take these aspen leaves, for instance. Not a single imperfection.

By July many of the leaves will have black spots, or black soot from different blights. But in May, they are simply beautiful.

I love this. Like fireworks, the explosion does not last long so you have to stop and enjoy every second of it. May is a season of its own, and it is laced with superlatives.

Here in Utah, May is historically the wettest month. Our forecast says we are in for a week of scattered showers. Our scattered shower yesterday produced 1.25" of rain. Our water reserves are at 30% of normal. This week of showers will help lessen our fire danger. It also makes weeding easier. Nothing quite like weeding after a rain.  Yesterday I dug up three trugs worth of crab grass. Felt really good. 

All this rain is making the grass grow. Way too fast, I might add. In May, I mow by hand and catch all the clippings to turn into my compost piles. I have four piles going. One is ready to use, and last weekend I put two of the piles through the shredder mixing in lawn clippings. I still have one more pile to go, but it got soggy over the winter and won't go through the shredder until it dries up. This job requires earplugs, dust mask and protective goggles. 

May also puts me into the mood for a flower buying frenzy. All the garden centers are open, flower stands pop up in parking lots, every hardware store and many grocery stores are busy selling bedding plants and hanging baskets that are already bursting with color. Wah wah wah. My want-juices try to take over.  Fortunately reason prevails. I have many pots in my yard that I like to fill with annuals. I don't have my plans together yet. Surprisingly, I do come up with a plan for the pots. It is different every year, but with some thought, the pots can harmonize without being all the same or just a mishmash of plants. 

May also sees considerable bird activity. In addition to mating and nest building, May is when many of the migrating birds return. Warblers, grosbeaks, gnatcatchers, hummingbirds and many more start showing up in my yard. During this first week of May, several of my favorites have found their way back. 

I have several of both Black-chinned Hummers and Broad-tailed hummers fighting over the feeders. Here is a Broad-tailed male with the light catching his iridescent throat feathers.

The Black-headed Grosbeaks showed up. Last year I had two pairs that stayed for the summer and nested. This week I have five males and three females busy at my feeder. 

In May, the Lazuli Bunting shows up for about a week before it continues on. They are a beautiful little bird albeit not very cooperative for the camera. 

Every now and then you get a surprise like this Yellow Warbler. There is a first time for everything, and I was so happy to have seen it in my own yard.

This is a tiny little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 

More birds will be showing up over the month. Life is good!
 

18 April 2015 - Utah Back Roads

Some of my favorite things are found traveling on back roads. You can find so much to love in small towns and the roads to get there. Old neon signs, painted signage on the side of buildings, cool buildings, old abandoned buildings, great landscapes. Here's a bunch of wonderful things from some of my travels this last week. 

I like collections of things. These power poles fall into that category. 

 The Bountiful Landfill is on the way to one of my birding sites. The posts on the gates always make me laugh.  A closer look shows someone's great sense of humor. 

You can't drive around the back roads without seeing many reminders that Utah was part of the old West. 

Wagons abound and wheels are used in all kinds of useful and decorative ways. You'll find them used as fences, gates, yard ornaments and mailbox stands. And that is just for starters. 

Then there are the old barns snugged in between the road and hills, usually accompanied by an amazing assortment of good stuff that leaves me drooling for rusty old metal. 

Not that I don't have enough of my own already, but still. . .

 Another item that will bring me to a stop are ranch gates. Many ranches have elaborate entrance gate signs. I love the variety of these signs. This is one of my favorites, but it is as much for the name of the ranch as it is the sign.

 While the next one is more modern and elaborate, it just doesn't have the same charm as the Tiny Ass Ranch's sign.

Other signs are homemade, like this one made out of  horseshoes  welded together. 

Then of course there are the old motel signs--especially if they are neon. 

In small towns you will find more interesting signage. Such as this car repair shop.

 Echo is a tiny town with a population of 56. It was bigger when the trains came through and before the freeway was built. It has a tiny cemetery that backs up to some red rock formations called the Egyptian Tombs. The church and cemetery are now historical sites. Not sure if the church is even used any more. But the red rock is a dramatic backdrop. 

The Egyptians Tombs kind of look like pyramids. 

 I have been in a lot of cemeteries, but this is the first time I have seen a stone for twins. 

Carrie and Frankie died in 1887, at a month old, a day apart. 

A single joined stone marked the passing of both children. The cemetery had stones for quite a few children who had very short lives. 

Further down the road are more rock formations. This is called The Witches or Witch Rocks. 

 And even further down the road is Devil's Slide. It does rather make you wonder about the early settlers' fascination with witches and devils. I would like to know what happened to push up two perfectly aligned columns of rock. And in all fairness, I have to admit that I would like to try the slide. Steep! Fast! Whee!

I also love the land. The changes in rock formation colors from reds to yellows. The flat valleys nestled up to soaring mountains. All this makes my heart happy. 

Sometimes you see ruins and wonder what the heck was this? It leads to research. This is one of four kilns made for producing charcoal. Other ruins nearby show maybe 20 families lived nearby. 

I find all this very spectacular and satisfying. 

There is something about being off the beaten track that leads to behavior like stopping on the tracks. What is it about seeing the tracks merge in the distance?   


And, another wonderful thing? When you are out in the middle of nowhere and a train comes by...

you can count on the engineer to blow the whistle for you as he goes by. Doesn't get much better than this. 

Oh wait, maybe it does. The highlight of last week's trips was verification that there really is such a place as the corner of

And finally, when you are on the back roads you never know what you will see. Wooden horses maybe?

And its colt.  Pretty amazing.