A Bit Of This & That For The Weekend

 

The weather has been glorious , sunny and warm temps hitting 26C or  78F for best part of the week . This morning it is a little overcast  but sun shine popping out every now and then  for the afternoon and temps are pleasant and fresh .

I am ahead in the gardening game this year thanks to early lovely weather , so now I am just sitting back and enjoying all the returning birds , butterfly's and yes blooms  lots of blooms  that have popped open and from trees  that have now popped open to leaves and soon to pop open any time now Lilacs and more .

                My little buddy who showed up a few weeks ago then took off , Spirit I call him has returned again I was wondering if he was ok as I hadn't seen him for a while  but I was glad to see he was ok  as he sat in our birch tree looking down at me .

Our Yellow Warblers have returned to , they love to feast on  the birch tree cat tail seeds as this little guy was bobbing about way up at the tippy top of our 60 foot tree.

                                                                         Wild violets every where .

         Clumps of Dandelions to  all on our hill at the end of the front of the property where we keep it a bit on the wild side lol  .

Above are the lilies I planted last year they were given to me as a house plant by my kids so I did an experiment and planted them in the garden after they had finished blooming and look they are growing and hopefully will be in bloom of bright yellow  next month , which by the way is just around the corner already ?!

In my Butterfly  , Hummer and Bee garden I planted some of  my Gladiolus and the the rest I planted in a pot to get them on the go for our new back corner picket fence garden Papa and I will be building this summer , he has the picket fence made already we just need to paint them  and prepare the edging  , put in the picket fence, shape the garden and then add  top soil  and plants he wants to add a water fall feature in it as well .

           I love Gladiolus they are an old fashioned flower and one my mum always had in the gardens when I was growing up !

My ground spreading Blue Perry winkle jeepers creepers are huge now and I have 5 of them spread about the gardens and are taking off so beautifully again this year  .

                                             All my English Daises have spread and are now blooming to .

Next door to us is a very nice older couple we will call them Mr & Mrs H and  Mr H is also a lover of birds and now has lots of  Tree Swallow houses about as well as huge purple Martin houses who are of the Swallow family  in the back of his property which is just behind ours so I get to have lots of other birds that I wouldn't have that close to us are even closer now and I am so happy about that , Papa and I are going to build some for our yard to this season . Mrs H loves to garden to so that’s a plus as well  . Our Barn Swallows are back  to .

                                                               Just my own gardening photo shoot lol !

Look who’s back  the Orchard Oriole having a nice long drink after his long trip and the Red Breasted Gross beaks  were at the feeder filling up with seed  . Still waiting for the Baltimore Orioles , Hummers  , Cat birds , Oven birds , and few more but   wont be long now  by the time they all arrive we will have close to 22 different breeds of birds in our yards , I love being on the Migration path lol ! 

So ..  that's basically what's been going on here  Birds , Blooms , Gardening and the taking in of it all with a sigh of beauty and relief it is once  again my favorite time of year .

                                                                        Until next time . Have a good weekend !

                                                                             Country Gal

Just Enjoying It All

 

Still waiting on our Hummers and Oriels they should be here soon if not in the next few days  but I am happy to say our house Wren Molly  and Barn Swallow Barney  are back now .  The weather has been glorious with lots of  sunshine temps up to 22C or 71 F  warm breezes and  the fresh smells of the spring in the air and windows wide open  .

                                    Our big old  Manitoba Maple has seeded and now the leaves have begun to grow .

                                                                All my Lilacs are ready to pop with lovely blooms .

                                                      Dandelion's are popping up again  .

                                                                          Everything is blooming marvelous lol !

                                                                             Chipping Sparrows are back to .

                                                 Lots of Turkey Vultures flying about the sky's over the valley .

          And Miggs well she is loving this weather just as much as I am , all though ya wont find me doing this lol !

                I cant believe this is the last week of April already and this year I am a head of the game in my gardens . I just planted Gladiolus bulbs , they will be up and in full bloom by August as they are an August flower . I planted an array of colours , red , white , orange  salmon pink ,  pink ,  yellow  , they are one of the many flowers my mum had  in her gardens when I was a kid and I  loved them all then to , they are what I call an old fashioned flower and still as beautiful as ever to me when in full bloom .

                                                  Well that's it for me for now the day awaits for me out there so off I go .

                                                                                       Until next time .

                                                                                        Country Gal

It Was A Wonderful Weekend

 

 

That it was , the weather was perfect truly more like summer then spring , sunshine , clear blue sky’s and did I mention  sunshine lots of sunshine lol  both Saturday and Sunday temps reached highs of 23C or 73F   . Saturday we took Miggs to the vet for her yearly check up , all  is good and she is now on a low dose of Arteritis meds as she gets sore and very stiff and her joints become inflamed  in the damp  and of course she had her vaccine's and meds for the summer   , then she went to the groomers , a busy day for Miggs Saturday morning was , then we finally got home mid Saturday after noon and enjoyed the rest of the day and weekend  outside mostly .

Sunday Papa was busy with cutting the grass and tidying up a few things in his shop a bit more , loading and  moving a few deck blocks over to his parents place , they live just up the road from us .

Yup I have my Hummer and Oriel feeders out now as they will be arriving in the next week or so , cant wait for them to arrive .

                      Our Lilacs are close to blooming as you may be able to see in this pic as the Lilac is behind the feeders .

  I just cropped the pic above so you can see the buds better ! These are a deep burgundy when in full bloom  . We have  3 white and  4  two tone pink and purple in the back where Papa was loading the blocks  , all so beautiful when in bloom and smell so lovely . Our crab apple tree is getting close to blooming to and when it does pretty  fuchsia pink flowers all over and the tree hums with bees collecting its nectar .

I was in the gardens over the weekend weeding and cleaning them up turning over the dirt ,  spring pruning and mooning over all that will be in full bloom soon and that is already in bloom .

                    This little Red Admiral  butterfly was happy to follow me all over the garden as I was having fun  in them  .

Two of my Hyacinths got a bit top heavy and broke from the bottom of the stem so I picked them up off  of the dirt and brought them in and washed them off   , oh boy they smell wonderful all through out the house  almost the same smell as Lilacs ..

                                                                I cant wait to get Lilac clippings to bring in either .

             So now all my gardens are done and tidied up  ,weeded and  ready for the next set of blooms' to pop open  and for the odd annual to fill a few spaces through out the summer .

Another sunny day here this Monday and the temps are rising once again so on that note I am off to get dressed and Miggs and I  will go for our morning  walk and enjoy this wonderful  weather  with all the fresh smells of grasses and flowers wafting through the air  , butterfly’s flitting about , bees buzzing about to now  and the birdies signing  and busy with homesteading  and I keeping an eye out for the Hummers and Oriels to arrive for the season .

                                                                                         Until next time . Have a good day !

                                                                                            Country Gal

Some Of This & Some Of That

 

So far this week the weather had been pleasant , rain yesterday and  over night with the odd clap of thunder  and it is as foggy as heck now very thick fog but sometime today the sun is to shine again and burn all this fog away and the weekends weather looks great . Papa and I have been busy here and there cat sitting for his parents for the past two months whilst they went on a road trip touring the states with truck and trailer and now they are back , just got back yesterday . A friend of ours fell ill and had to go to the hospital and have double by pas surgery and is now resting and slowly getting better  it was touch and go there for a bit but all is going good , we went to visit them in the hospital Wednesday  and we pray they are back on their feet soon and able to go home soon to .  Papa and I had our yearly physicals and blood work done Wednesday  as well , all looks good we can get out test results on line from the blood work on their web site , each person has a code to type in to get their results   . Papa is having a bit of trouble with his  left hip so he had x-rays  on that Wednesday to and is waiting for these results .

On to another topic . The clouds have been very interesting the past few sunsets and I just love photographing clouds like this .

I love how they look and how the sun set lines them with  soft  orangey light and the dark parts look   like they have a silver lining  as they float on by .

                                                    Almost looks like white mountains in the back ground .

            Clouds like this can look very eerie  but yet oh so beautiful at the same time . It puts so much wonder and awe into each one for me  and I often do wonder how far they have traveled or if they just  developed before they arrived here !.

                  Caught the sight of an airplane or rather a Jet flying through this patch of cloud as its vapor trail gave it away  shining in the sun light .

Now we have a few garden shots  , nice green grass and pretty Tulips and Daffs all blooming wonderfully , my other plants will be in full bloom soon as each day they grow more and more and develop buds full of colour  ready to burst  , I have already put my Geraniums from  in the house back out on the front porch for season  and they are doing well still .

I spent the day yesterday as it was rainy cleaning and organizing cupboard's  so that's all done  a bit of spring cleaning here and there  each day . Miggs has the vets tomorrow for her yearly check up , vaccines and summer meds from the ticks , skitters and fleas and then to the groomer for her summer doo  , then we have a  water heater guy coming out as our water heater maybe on the fritz and some pipes and valves may need to be replaced  to so Papa will be dealing with that after  then we will putter about for the rest of the weekend  . Well that's about it for me for now .

                                                                                   Until next time . Have a good weekend

                                                                                          Country Gal

Springing Along With This & That

 

Good morning all . Hope you had a nice Easter weekend , we sure did . The kids came down for a bit to visit and celebrate our eldest son David's  Birthday and we enjoyed the lovely warm sunny weather all weekend  puttering outside in the yard and gardens trying to get a jump /head start  on everything .

Things are blooming and coming along in our yard and gardens very nicely .

Mrs Sparrow seems to think there is another bird in the reflection of the lamp that looks just like her , she has been doing this for days lol !

She was soo busy with this reflection of herself that she really didn't notice me there taking her photo  and I am getting pretty good at quietly sneaking up on my subjects to get a pic or two lol .

She looked up and gave me a look as if to say you caught me , now get this other bird to come out of there and play will ya  ? lol !

                                                                        Mr & Mrs Dove taking a nap .

              My Forsythia bush is blooming every so pretty as it does every year . I love the little perfect yellow flowers .

                                                     Both are  Dollar store pretties  to brighten up the kitchen .

                                                                                        Hyacinths look pretty .

    And little Eastern Comma butterfly seems to think so to ! I have seen lots of Painted lady butterfly's and Cabbage moths fluttering about .

                            Miggs was loving this warm sunny weather to . Temps hit 25C or 75F most of the weekend !

                                                                     Such a goofy dog when the camera is out lol !

               Going to the groomers this Saturday for her summer do and then vet for her vaccines  and meds for the summer  and yearly check up .

                                  Papa’s Tulips are springing along nicely to  , yes he picked them out and planted them  .

                                                                        Daffodils are out all over the place now .

Yesterday evening as the sun was setting and every evening the Canadian Geese take their fly over from their day spot from the river banks  to their night spot .

           Even Mr Herring  takes his evening flight over the river and marsh  and settles down for the night in the mash   .

Looking here to the east over the valley  as the sun sets in the west and sun light bounces in the cloud and off the trees .

It had been a beautiful weekend  with out kiddos  , I posted about  that the other day and the perfect weather we had .

Chilly this Monday morning but warming up and we are in for another lovely sunny day . So on that note , I hope you all had a nice long weekend and the weather was wonderful for you to .

                                                                                                 Until next time .

                                                                                                   Country Gal