And Welcome to February!
We are having mild, damp weather. The clouds hang low in gloomy despondency, but in the garden things are happening!
A week ago I looked speculatively at the forsythia in the garden, and decided to break off a small bit. Popped it into a narrow container and put it on the kitchen windowsill, along with the gourds and a bit of dried flax from last summer, (which has lost almost all its heavenly blue bits).
And in the big bathroom a pot of pink tulips are promising a treat in a couple of weeks, along with the red geraniums which are just coming back into bloom
Weird old Christmas cactus bloomed in November, and now is doing an encore, but only a half-hearted effort.
Charles did a tour of the garden this morning, and the rising sap awakened in him his Master Pruner spirit! After sixty-five years and the deep down knowledge that he knows exactly what he's doing, it still makes me nervous when he gets the pruning shears in his hands and that enthusiastic gleam in his eye.
However, he is welcome to prune the forsythia sometime very soon, and I will fill the big bathtub with its branches and we will have a glorious golden froth to complement the red geraniums.
I poke and peer along the pathway, but all I have found so far are a few daffodil bulbs poking through the ground, and the Lenten Roses pushing their vibrant scarlet stubs into the balmy air.
The quail and a sharp shinned hawk take turns patrolling the garden.
What will tomorrow bring when the groundhog wakens momentarily to sniff the air for spring?????
9 comments:
Nice pictures. I love the way you've framed them... :-)
Pixellicious Photos
Yep. You got a sharpie there too. I have several dozen sharp-shinned hawks to post but have been posting other birds on my birds blog. Soon though.
I used to have a lot of forsythia bushes and always trimmed them back and stuck the bare branch just cut off into the ground where I wanted it to grow and by the end of that summer I had a very nice plant. I got some dwarf ones now and they are not prolific but will grow the same way.
Not much use the dwarf. I never seen anything around the blooms.
I too say rabbits on the first of the month and if I forget and remember later in the day I am ashamed to say that I turn round three times and say abracadabra fiddlededee gobbledegook. Yes I know, its nonsense. Shall try to remember to bring in some forsythia tomorrow.
Hi Hildred, I had to laugh at the thought of Charles getting a pruning glint in his eye! I love the thought of a bathtub of forsythia - send him out at once! By the looks of your buds and shoots, spring isn't too far off.
Our little Sharpie came back today, briefly. I hope you don't mind Abe, that I printed your picture of the "adagio dancer" (the Sharp Shinned Hawk from your blog) so that Charles could have a good look at it.
We had a most magnificent forsythia in our old 'lost' garden, - Charles kept it beautifully pruned and some day I will post a picture of it.
Oh Barb, Charles is really a very professional pruner, but he does have a reputation for being elegantly ruthless.
Oh what a lovely garden tour! I love that the forsythia cutting is blooming on the first of February. Spring is coming. And your birds -- my gosh, those are great pictures.
I love the photo of the quail on the bird house.
Forsythia AND Gambel's Quail! You are indeed, very rich! Oh, and your comment about your husband with pruning shears in hand made me laugh. My husband strikes the same fear in me when he gets them out!
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