Before This Week's Expected Rains

Three quick pics of some iris before they get knocked about by the forecasted rains.

All In One Morning This Week

Now here we are out back just beginning to watch Spring happen. The artichokes are doing well and the California poppies are just starting to open.


And do we have anemones? I'll say we do! They're going crazy this year. Coming up where I've never seen them before. I wonder -- is some critter spreading them around. But who's complainin'?

Wow! Aren't the rocks doing well! And the grape hyacinths which didn't get planted somewhere last Fall got put into some pots six weeks ago and are now doing what they're supposed to do!

Here's a purple pre-iris and some espalliered Braeburn apple pre-blossoms.

I'm hoping for lots of iris this year.

Should happen, what with the number of sub-freezing nights we had this past Winter.

Yes, it's definitely Spring.

The birds and the bees are out in full force, so we're getting pollinated, folks.

The espalliered pear with 4 varieties has 3 varieties blooming.

Here's a comice branch:

Well,

I missed taking photos

of the blossoms of the strawberry patch,

the blueberry bushes, and the peach tree.

Next time. Go figure!

Spring Tulips & Topper

A photo of a complete nose-to-tail Wire Fox Terrier is nearly impossible. They move faster than the combination of a human mind and a camera's shutter allows. Hence still-life tulips and frozen-in-place 7/8 dog.

I dug these tulips up late last spring after they bloomed in a garden where I didn't want them any longer. They spent the summer heeled in some rich compost, part of the fall in the refrigerator, and all winter in these pots. Then voila, 10 days before the official start of Spring 2010, tulips in full bloom.

The Swiss Chard survived the winter and looks better than it did all last year. Overdue for picking, I'd say.

More Vineyard Photos from the 1950's

Here we are on a daytrip to Nantucket. I guess the day's dress code was blue sweaters for the boys and head scarves for the girls.

The clay cliffs of Gay Head (when we were allowed to climb them).

The girls are ready for the beach, just waiting for their driver.

The Vineyard in the 50's (i.e. Martha's)

Having gotten a new scanner last week, I've been busy digitizing old photographs and sending them to the subjects in them.

One group I've been working on is a set of black and white and a set of early Kodacolor snapshots taken in and around Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard.

We shared a house up there in the summers of the 1950's with a family of close friends. It was a great old cottage in the campground surrounding the Methodist Tabernacle. (We'd sneak off to the Catholic Church on Sundays!).

Each set of parents had a bedroom, my brother and I shared a bedroom, and my sister shared a room with the 2 girls in the other family.

Lots of swimming in Nantucket Sound or Tashmoo beaches, mucky clamdigging, fishing off the docks of Edgartown or Menemsha, salt water taffy from Heberts, conch shells, rainy day games and Flying Horses, and lobsters and clams after the waves of South Beach. Looking back, life was uncomplicated and every day was another adventure. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are from those summer weeks on the Vineyard. Haven't been there since 1965 when I spent a week on the Shenandoah during its first summer in the water. Can't wait to scan those photos!

My Fav 2009 Christmas Present

This mug is so special. It's a gift from my niece who has a thing for taking great photos and a talent doing great layout. A year ago, she spent a semester studying overseas and was in photo paradise. She put some favorites on a mug for her old uncle. Thanks, Laura!

Persimmon Time

This morning when I pulled up the shade and looked out the window at the rain, there "they" were. THE BIRDS, that is. On the very day the persimmons' ripeness is optimal, all variety of birds descend on the persimmon tree. There were robins, blue jays, sparrows, and all sorts of other little birds flitting in and out of the branches. All were feverishly pecking away on the ripe orange orbs weighing down the branches.

The tree has way too many fruits for me to use, so I don't mind feeding the birds. But, if I expected to have any persimmons at all for my Christmas Persimmon Puddin' I had better get out there in the rain and stake my claim.

This is some of what I was able to get.