I'm waiting for hummingbirds

My feeder has just been refreshed with new "nectar" - aka sugar water.  I refilled it several weeks ago, being hopeful (my first ever sighting here was on March 18).My blogging friend Janet, just an hour away in Greenwood, SC has had hummers visiting her feeder today -- I hope the link to her FB...

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Fixing a slumping problem

We carefully propped the cement blocks to keep the barrier cloth right next to the cement wall. Slumping fix We live on a lake and have an oddly-shaped section of bulkhead between our boat-lift bay and the neighbor's cement bulkhead. The soil here has been eroding from under the bulkhead and from its...

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A beautiful spring day

Finally, a day worthy of real spring.  Clear blue sky. Temps in the mid-70°s. Redbuds in flower and dogwoods well along.I planted sprouted fingerling potatoes this afternoon -- the woodchuck shouldn't like the above-ground parts, I hope, even though s/he seems to have snagged my collards already.I...

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Early flowering bulbs

In spite of a early spring dusting of snow this morning, and a howling wind, it was lovely to see hyacinths and grape hyacinths on my walk in the mountains this morning. a Wikipedia image of grape hyacinths:  they're everywhere in our historic neighborhoodIt felt wintry, but the visible signs...

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Native woodland gardens

It was nice this morning to share thoughts about creating native woodland gardens  with an OLLI class (check out OLLI programs if you're in the US -- a great lifelong learning initiative). It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now...

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Spring is here

In spite of a nasty cold northerly wind today, bringing yet more freezing temperatures, spring is definitely here in the Carolinas.  It's welcome, for sure.  It's been a long cold winter for us; we're not familiar with the deep freeze (and snowy weather) that we've experienced this year.But spring is still evident everywhere -- flowering redbuds and oaks, fruiting maples, flowering blueberries,...

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The magic of gardens

I have a friend who lost her house in a fire almost two months ago.  Everything was lost, and the house is currently being "gutted" and rebuilt.  She thought she'd never return, as she lost so much, including dear animal companions.What has endured, though, is her garden.  The daffodils are flowering, the self-sowing poppies will be back, and spring is there.How renewing a story is...

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