Category Archives: my garden
favorite garden pictures
Not duck as in dodge. I said Ducks.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
One must seek refuge in simple pleasures when the insanity gets too much. I did that today. I needed a stress reliever. Those who know me know I went out into the gardens and worked. There’s something soothing about digging in the soil and planting things.
I spent several hours weeding and planting. I took a break to feed the dogs and cook dinner for DH and me. Then I went back outside.
Speedy, one of our Koi had made a few spectacular jumps today celebrating the warmth. Therefore, at first, I didn’t think much when I heard a loud splash behind me. I turned to see if she’d jump again. It wasn’t Speedy this time.
My pair of mallards had returned. The female set right to the business of munching algae. The male played look out for her. I went inside to tell DH and grab a slice of bread for them. They looked lovely swimming around in the pond seizing pieces of bread that the Koi didn’t beat them to as it hit the water.
They stayed two hours. Then with a slight flapping of wings, they took off over the fence and were soon out of sight. I hope they come back tomorrow.
Posted in my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Ark too Brutus?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Gavin and Patty requested the use of a raft to go out today. It might have worked except they have no thumbs and can’t hold paddles. We’ve had so much rain that I heard the stock prices on gopher wood jumped through the roof. I’ve seen pairs of animals strolling past all day. Ba dum dum.
The neighbor’s bulldogs Diamond and Brutus ordered snorkel gear although Brutus really wanted a boat. Cleo, the standard poodle across the street, rented herself out as a squirrel canoe. The two toy dogs next door stepped off their porch and almost drowned so Gavin lent them the raft.
The Koi are touring the neighborhood and the bullfrogs are using in the magnolia tree as a diving board. The daffodils want water wings. Did I mention that we’ve had a lot of rain?
Posted in Dog related, Misc, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Unpredictable March nights
Posted by doggonedmysteries
My poor magnolia tree had some frost damage to its almost open buds. I think some over the pond got hit the worst. We might have some bloomage but nothing near what it would’ve been had the temperature stayed above freezing. The last two years the tree escaped the frost so I guess it was about due to happen again.
DH was surprised that it was cold enough to need a jacket when he went over to the hospital to see his mother in the morning. I told him to be ready for a repeat of it today since as I write this at 2 a.m. the temperature has already dropped to 33 degrees.
However, by Thursday it is supposed to be in the seventies again. I’m glad because I do have some new flowers that need planting. I also need to bring my black elephant ears up from the basement to get them acclimated and ready to plant too. They will stay on the back porch until mid April.
I just took the pups for their last out of the night and it is chilly. I needed my jacket.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Two weeks in the garden
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Yeah, it was worth the wait…
Posted in my garden
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Goliath wanted squab for dinner.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know all about Goliath. For those of you who haven’t, Goliath is one of the four bullfrogs who live in our pond. You can tell which one he is because he makes the other three look tiny. There are a couple of pictures of him on ‘our garden and pond’ page.
Goliath spent last summer begging worms off me. (Actually, he stalked me for the worms that I dug up for the Koi.) Like a fool, I spoiled him by giving them to him. For the past week, we’ve had some nice weather but not too many insects around which means the frogs are ravenous.
I was sitting out on the back steps enjoying the birdsongs and the sounds of the fountains and waterfall. Two mourning doves sat on a wire above the yard. A robin was busy taking a bath in the little pool at the top of the waterfall. When he finished the two doves flew down to stroll around the pond. They patrolled once around, a second time, and on the third lap, I heard a loud splash. The doves flew up from the far side of the pond both were in a panic.
Curious I walked over to the edge of the pond and there sat Goliath on top of a lily pad pot. A couple tan tail feathers protruded from his mouth. If ever a frog could, he had a ‘rats, foiled again’ look on his face.
Posted in Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
With heavy, duty gardening comes…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Sore muscles like you wouldn’t believe. It probably wouldn’t be too bad if I hadn’t done twice the work today. Tonight I have sore muscles that I didn’t know I had, and in places, I haven’t thought about since the weather got cold.
That’s okay though, since it felt wonderful to get outside and do things again. I do hate winter because it turns me into a real couch potato.
Today I did a lot of over head work trimming vines back on the arbor. Tonight, all that work is making its presence known in my neck, my back, and my shoulders. Well, you get the idea. You know what? Growing older isn’t for sissies. Nope, it’s not for sissies one bit. Even five years ago, I probably wouldn’t have been as sore as I am tonight.
I’ll get over. I’ll be out working in the yard until the predicted cold front moves through by the end of the week. Of course, with cooler weather and rain I’ll be inside chomping at the bit to get out again.
I can’t help myself. I am dying to be able to sit outside at night and enjoy all the hard work.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, My blog, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Let the gardening begin!
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We had a gorgeous day with plenty of sun and the temperature in the mid fifties. I dug out my leather work gloves—oops, going to need to shop for new ones, mine are full of holes. Oh well, I tugged them on anyway and began the slow process of cleaning out the garden beds. I cleared over half of the pond garden, backwashed the filter, and added some fresh water to the pond. After three hours of work, I took a short break and brought the dogs out for a romp.
I didn’t do much work on the side garden today since we do have a little bit of snow left in there. However, I did drag out the rake and cleaned up many of the seed pods from the sweet gum tree. At least those that were in the grass. They look like teensy hedge hogs. I did an hour of the rake, stoop, and pick up dance. I have a ton of those seed pods in the side garden I need to remove yet but I’ll do that another day. It was more important to get the ones up from where we walk. Those suckers hurt when you step on them, even the dogs hate them.
I hauled a garbage can outside the fence and began to clean up after the slobs who litter around here. I swept up glass, picked up paper litter, plastic cups, and bags, filling a large dog food bag with the detritus from the litterbugs. That alone took me two hours. Yes, a whole two hours wasted cleaning up other people’s garbage.
Where was DH? He was keeping the dogs company watching the TV. It was a darned shame too, because he missed seeing the Downy Woodpecker feeding on the suet, the Cardinals taking a bath in the top of the waterfall, and the Black-capped Chickadees watching me from the fence.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
I see flowers starting to grow
Posted by doggonedmysteries
The yard is almost void of snow. A stroll around the gardens revealed numerous spring flowers trying to push through the mulch. I can’t wait for them to bloom.
Both the dogs were past silly with this noticeable change in the weather. They don’t care that March came in like a lamb they’re happy it’s getting warmer and the snow is leaving. They leapt about the yard in wild abandon.
The birds were also letting us know that the weather was improving. I haven’t heard so much birdsong in months. What a joy it was.
DH was in a jollier mood. I even took two walks, one with each dog. It was nice to get out.
We’re looking forward to this weekend and the predicted temperatures of the mid fifties with sun, lots of sun.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
The birds will be happy
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’d neglected hanging suet out in the gardens for quite a while. The squirrels would clean it out before the birds could get to it. It hardly seemed worth spending the money on tree rats. Those gray furred monsters chased all the birds away. Now, I haven’t seen a squirrel in the yard since I stopped putting out suet. I’ve seen very few birds too.
Yesterday we had many birds in the yard. They were all playing in the waterfall. Cardinals, chickadees, juncos, and sparrows were splashing away like kids in a pool. Since I was heading to the grocery store, I added suet to my list. It won’t take them long to find it. They will be happy. I just hope word doesn’t get back to the neighborhood tree rats.
The squirrels have an uncanny sense that there’s suet about. With luck, the birds will find it first. G is closer to the cemetery’s tall trees. So far this year the squirrels have damaged four hanging suet baskets and three bird feeders at her place. We keep hoping that our neighborhood hawk has put a dent in the tree rat population.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, feeding the birds, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Happy birds, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, tree rats, Writer, Writing
It must be January because I’m getting the gardening bug
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It never fails once we get that tiny warm spell, that miniscule thaw out in January; I begin to think of gardening. I scan online seed catalogues. I dig through catalogues I get in the mail. I plan and dream of where things will go in the spring.
I’m on a constant search for perennials. I hunt for anything in a black flower because I love the way the black accents make all the other colors pop.
I blame my father and my Aunt J. for this. They got me started. They caused my addiction to gardening.
My father always planted tomatoes and a few other vegetables each year. I often helped him dig around in the garden. When I visited my Aunt J on a more regular basis, she moved my interest to perennials because she and my Uncle H had a garden shop. Aunt J caused my full blown addiction when they went out of business and she insisted I load my van with plants on several trips.
I still have most of those perennials in my garden. Some of which I’ve split over the years and given to G for her gardens. Now G and I spend the spring haunting garden shops and loading our gardens with new discoveries.
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Warm enough today
Posted by doggonedmysteries
The filters thawed at last. (Although, which you will see shortly, not without a minor mishap.) I was able to back wash them and add fresh water to the pond. The Koi are happy and it was warm enough to have three bullfrogs hanging out in the water this evening. I do wish this weather would continue, but it’s January and it’ll never happen.
Early this morning DH managed to catch that I’d left the filter on rinse yesterday instead of remembering to put it back on filter. (Things like this happen when I try to multitask too much.) Yesterday the still frozen filters weren’t even trickling so there was no water loss until today when they began to thaw. Fortunately, DH caught my mistake before the water level went down more than an inch. However, scrambling to correct that and get the hose in the pond to add water exhausted him.
The filters are functioning. The waterfall is falling. The fountains are working…all is right in the garden. We’ll wait for spring to find the leaks in the waterfall. For now all we can do is try to keep everything operating as best as we can.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Weather related
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Cold spell damage repairs on the pond
Posted by doggonedmysteries
That long cold spell we had did some damage to the waterfall and froze the filters solid. The weather is supposed to be (hopefully) warm enough to thaw things. It looks as if I have a lot work ahead.
The top of the waterfall is a manufactured piece of fiberglass and cement. I need to locate the leak there and fix it. The two filters are solid icicles so I have to wait for them to thaw. At least the fountains are running and the pond didn’t freeze solid.
I figure, according to the weather reports, that I have three days to get the work done. Once I get the filters and waterfall working properly it can get cold again.
Just in case I can’t get the filters working, if the freezing damaged them, I did look at some new ones online today. There are ton of them out there and most of the new ones have a built in UV light that is great for killing algae and preventing algae blooms. We will go for one of the ones with the UV light if we need a new filter.
Posted in my garden, Weather related
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Doggonedmysteries 