Remember When?

 We just had a bit of a snow dump, so here's a picture to remind us that warmer times with flowers and butterflies will come.

Week 50/66: Back to my Happy Place

I'm off to the British Library this coming week for a two week visit.  I have reading plans, theater plans, and fun plans.

But first, I have a lot to get done.

Today, I planted some garden seeds...

It's too early for some things, probably (given our average frost dates), but some things will probably be okay.  Yesterday, I planted some native flower seed in my deck planters, so hopefully they'll be okay.

I thnk I've made all the travel and hotel arrangements I need, and have theater tickets.

I need to do the union books before I go, and make sure all our dues are paid up.  And I need to write a check to reimburse an officer for some expenses.

And I need to get my computer checked for viruses.

I really need to practice violin (which is what I'm doing after I finish posting), clean the house a bit, and do some laundry.  And I need to find my passport (it should be pretty easy), my BL reader's card (should be easy), and figure out what to pack, and yes, pack.

I need to fill out a form for my financial advisor.

So the list is getting more manageable...

Crocus Smile, 2019

Here's a picture from April 17!

And April 10th:

Previous years: 

Year Five

Year Four
Year Three
Year Two
The First Post

Crocus Smile, Year Five

It's time for the annual Crocus Smile art installation picture!  If you recall, just last week, it looked like this.  (Scroll down for picture.)  Now the snow has melted, and you can see the smile.

It's quite a bit later than last year, but also fuller.  (The spring before, I added some bulbs, and they appear to have survived to come up this spring.)

Year Four
Year Three
Year Two
The First Post

And it's way bigger than it was for the first couple of years.

In other exciting news, yesterday, I saw my first ever Purple Finches!  The top picture shows three males (one you can only see a bit of behind the feeder).  Birders always talk about male Purple Finches looking like they've been dipped in raspberry.  They're much redder than House Finches on the back and wings.  And they don't have dark stripes on their flanks as House finches do.  They also have notched tails, which House Finches don't.  (It's not the best picture as a picture, but it shows the important identification features I was looking at.)

 The next picture is a female, which is the same size, also has a notched tail, and has a serious light colored stripe above and below the eye.  It's way more streaky on the body, but the eye stripes are the field marker people point to.

In other birding news, I went to some friends' house for breakfast this morning; they live on a wooded lot next to a lake, and it's their first spring there.  It was glorious weather, and we saw all sorts of great birds.

I saw my first Red-Breasted Nuthatch not in-hand (I'd previously seen one that had been mist netted for banding at bird school last year).

We also saw Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers, including one that was sucking sap, so to speak.  It was monitoring three holes drilled closely together, and sucking sap from each in turn, all without moving more than it's head.

We may have seen a female Redstart or maybe it was a Yellow-Rumped Warbler (it was very grey, and seemed more grey with no real yellow markings, but...)

Also Mergansers, Buffleheads, Kingfisher, Bald eagle, Downy and Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Jays, Chickadees, Robins.  A very good morning!

I still have some Redpolls feeding on my deck, and a few Juncos, but the American Goldfinches are bright yellow now.  There are also Mourning Doves.

Rush Hour in the Great North Woods

This was my commute this morning.  I stopped for turkeys?  Why did they cross the road?  To strut their stuff!

In other news, the crocus smile has started.  It was up a bit before, but it's sort of more visible through the snow right now.  (Look for the bits of yellow.)

Mowing

I mowed the lawn today, after most of my neighbors had done theirs.


I don't think I've ever mown so early in the season!  SPRING!

Crocus Smile, the Third Year

The first year of the crocus smile, taken on April 19th.


The second year of the crocus smile, taken on April 29th.


This year, it's way early!  It's been visible for a couple of days, but I just decided to take a picture today.  I'm thinking that this year, I'll pull some bulbs from elsewhere in the yard and try to augment it some.  I've got some areas where crocuses are a bit crowded.  And they're yellow, so they'll stand out well.


It does look better in person, though.


Still, it feels so like spring!  (but I'm told we're expecting a big storm tomorrow.


But I'll be headed to SAA!  Anyone want to meet up?


Fie, do you have my number?  (I have yours, and I can text now!)


Our spring break is this week.  I graded and recorded a set of exams, and have been taking care of stuff that really needs to be taken care of.  It's amazing how good some sunshine and sleeping in feels!

Garden, July First

I'm sharing some pictures of the garden, but just so you remember, here's the picture I took in early June.  (I was a little late getting things in.)

Here's the same area now!

On Monday, I had two broccoli plants doing well.  On Tuesday morning, they'd both had their tops taken off and away. 

 

I don't know quite what to do about spinach.  I had some there, and took the leaves for a while until the plants started doing the seeding thing.  So I pulled them, and then planted a couple more seeds.  (They aren't up yet.)  Anyway, things are growing and I'm happy about that.

 

There are also plants on the deck.  A friend told me you could put a pumpkin in a planter and then grow it up a trellis and support any pumpkins with pantyhose.  We'll see.

 



And there are a couple of tomato plants because they're usually pretty easy to grow and success is good.

And finally, there are artichokes.  I have two plants that survived the winter, and three new ones.  And four of these are growing little chokes now!  (The two winter survivors are at the back, starting in the black pot.  Each pot except the center one has a little choke starting.)

Planting Done!

I've finally put the rest of the plan into the garden.  I've added carrots a while back, and yesterday added some summer squash, zucchini, and a couple of pumpkins.  As you can see here, the kale is doing well (and I've harvested a fair bit of kale already, and spinach, and some lettuce).  And, yes, I have a nice crop of weeds.

On the left: front is strawberries, then carrots (small, but growing).  The next bed is a pumpkin in back, and either summer squash or zucchini towards the front. 

On the right: front is kale, then spinach and lettuce.  There are a couple of tiny broccoli there, but you can't see them.  And then in back is a pumpkin and towards the front either summer squash or zucchini.  (I started the summer squash and zucchini in two little pots, three each, but then I couldn't remember which pot was which.)

Crocus Smile, The Second

In fall 2013, I decided to plant some crocus bulbs in a pattern on my lawn.  Here's a post about it the next spring, when things were coming up. 

My crocus are done blooming for the spring, alas, but the plants are doing their part.  The smile didn't really work great this year because different crocus bloomed at different times.  You could see there was something, but you couldn't really see the smile unless you knew that's what was there.  Now, however, it's much clearer, in a way.

 

It's more obvious in person, but you can probably make it out if you look.  And yes, one of us needs to mow her lawn.

Optimism: Spring Garden

I put the first plants of the year in the raised beds today.  First I dug them up (or, as the weeds think of it, gave them a deep massage), except for the strawberries that made it through the winter (lower left of the first picture).

 

 

Here's a bit closer look at the strawberries.

And here's the new plants.  Not much to look at!  I planted three each of kale, broccoli, spinach, and a lettuce in this bed.  (I'm trying to be a little more sane than last year.)

We're expecting more cold weather, but if these plants don't make it, I'll put seeds in directly, and that will probably work, too.

Last year, it looks like I planted the beds in early May, about the 7th.  But then, I had to wait until they were built last year.  Still, given how prolific the garden was, I'm not too worried if I have to put seeds in after some more cold.  And the other three beds aren't planted at all yet (except for the strawberries from last year).

I'm thinking of carrots in the strawberry bed, and then one "hill" each of summer squash and zucchini, and then I'm going to try to grow sugar pumpkins on the deck in planters, and tomatoes in planters, maybe, too.

Spring Starts Now

Meet the two newest members of the BardiacShack household!

 

They're red pines, and they're about 3 feet tall right now, maybe 4.  (It's hard to get the combination of heights right when you plant on a slope and want to leave a nice berm to help hold in water.)  I know they don't look like much, but about five years ago now, I planted some white pines, and now here they are:

 



So things do grow!

Happily, my neighbors' dog is here and helped me.  (NOT.)

At any rate, she is always lovely to have around, very good company!

When I first moved here, about 11 years ago now, I planted 6 trees.  Two white pines (not the ones above), two tamaracks (one has died, alas), a hawthorne, and this sugar maple.  It's always a bit slow to leaf out in spring, but it sure has grown!

And finally, some crocus in the back yard, because they're beautiful.

I saw my first ever Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker on Thursday.  At first I thought it was a scruffy Downy Woodpecker, but then I saw that it wasn't, and voila, it was a Y-B Sapsucker!

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a happy new year.  I hope we have a breakout of peace in the world, but I'm not holding my breath.


A rundown for 2014.  It's been a busier, more eventful year than I realized before I started this post. 

Goal for 2015: good health and happiness, being a good friend, being a better teacher and colleague.

Professional:
I taught a totally new senior seminar and learned a lot.

And I taught my usual two comp courses, an unusual two Shakespeare courses (usually I teach one, sometimes none).  Had a course release for committee work, which helped a lot, considering how much work the committee was.

Goals for 2015: Finish two current projects, teach better


Birding:  The best birds of the year were Snowy Owls, Northern Hawk Owl, a Garganey (at the end of the post), Warblers galore!  Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  Sora, Swainson's Thrush, and a YHB!  Brown Pelicans and Sooty Shearwaters (also Dolphins!), Pigeon Guillemots and Western Gulls  Wow, it was a really good birding year for me, wasn't it?  I saw a lot of new birds, and learned a good bit along the way.

Trip: California in summer, Hearst Castle, and Elephant Seals!  (And some birds, too!  See above.)

Goal for 2015: Maybe take a camera class, see more spring birds, more snowy owls, and see the Hawk Owl again.


Biking
Bike odometer: 10763.  That means I've ridden over 10K miles on my bike.  That's a lot when you think about it.

2014: 1022 miles (76 hours)
2013: 700 miles (52 hours)
2012: 1296 miles (89 hours)
2011: 460 miles (29 hours) (in UK from July to December)
2010: 1020 miles (66 hours)
2009: 2380 miles (166 hours)
2008: 1425 miles (97 hours) (in Japan from January to early June)
2007: 2011 miles* (There may have been more miles, before I started using the bike journal thingy, but I seem to have started using it in mid-May, so probably not tons of miles.)

One thing that's fun about a blog is that it's searchable, so you can look back fairly easily.  Here's what I had to say when I started looking for a new bike, and a post after my first ride, both back in 2007.  I'd say that bike's been a pretty good investment.

Goal for 2015: Bike 1500 miles, and have more fun!


Kayaking
I bought a new kayak in May.  And named it, the Retirement Fund.

Goal for 2015: Enjoy more kayaking!

Gardening
I had some planting beds put in the south side of my yard, and planted a veggie garden for the first time.  Here's what it looked like on May 8th or so.

And here's what it looked like in August.

Goal for 2015: Be a little more realistic about planting, and enjoy it as much!


Gardening, the Artichoke Project
Last winter, I managed to keep a couple of artichoke plants alive through the winter.

This winter, I've brought in five pots, and am trying again.  I've added light, but so far, I have a bug problem I can't seem to shake, though not spider mites this time.  When we had a break in the weather, and things were just above freezing, I put them out for a couple of days, hoping to kill off the bugs.  But it doesn't seem to have worked. 

What my friend and I have learned: we should put the plants out as early as possible, and bring them in late.  Bringing them in late, after a couple of frosts, may help kill off the bugs.  My friend reports that her plants don't seem to have bugs, and that's what she did, and mine do, and I didn't bring mine in as late as she did.  We're hoping that putting them out early, even if we have to cover them some, will give them more "winter" and thus get them to produce more chokes in summer.


And finally, I started some forced bulbs the other day, so in a couple of months, I may have tulips and daffodils!

Final Harvest

I dug up most of the veggie garden yesterday, harvesting the last of the carrots and the pumpkin.

(Link to post with pictures from the summer garden.)

I did leave one kale plant still going pretty well, and expect to have kale salad this evening.

Here are the final harvest pictures, with a quarter so you can see how big (or small) my pumpkin is.  You can also see where the pumpkin is scarred from growing on a concrete block:

The Great Winter Artichoke Experiment, part the second

Last year, in October, I posted pictures of the two artichoke plants I'd brought in, hoping to keep them alive for spring.

And then in February, I posted about some of the difficulties in keeping the plants alive, and showed pictures of the survival.  The biggest difficulty, it seems, was spider mites, which nearly killed the plants.  Then I got some spray, and they survived.

My friend also gave me a couple new artichoke plants that she'd done the pretend winter trick on to get them to act like they're second year plants and so produce chokes.

The problem this summer, for both of us, was that we got few chokes.  I got two, one off an overwintered plant, and one off a new plant.  She had similar luck.  We think (well, she thinks, and she's the expert, so I follow along) that they didn't get enough "winter" to think they should produce chokes (which is to say, to flower).  We had a quick, sudden spring, and maybe it just wasn't quite enough for all of the plants.  Mine I didn't put out until it was a bit warmer, and her new ones maybe didn't get enough cold.

So, here's to another try.  This year, I've brought in all the plants.  I cleaned them out, took out the leaves that seemed to have spider mites, and sprayed all of them.  Right now, they look pretty good.  I may have to get another set of lights.  These were enough for the two plants last year, but spread out, the light's a bit less concentrated, if that makes sense?

Here are a couple of pictures.  Wish me luck!  (The plants in the blue and green pots are the ones that were in last year's overwintering experiment.)

As you can see, my deck really needs to be powerwashed!

I got little roller platforms, and plastic water things, so hopefully I can water without making a mess all over everything. 

New Calendar

I love getting a new calendar (I use academic year calendars) and putting in all the important dates and stuff.  It just feels so hopeful somehow.

My garden this year feels hopeful, too.

As a reminder, this is how it looked on June 2nd.

And this is how it looked on July 1st.

And this is how it looks today, July 22nd.

 

(I've eaten, frozen, and shared a lot of kale, and also lots of yellow squash.)

 

And look, there's a pumpkin starting!

 



I think my relative inexperience with gardening really shows.  I planted WAY too much in there.  I somehow didn't realize how huge the squash would get, and how much squash they'd produce.  And the pumpkin!  I didn't realize it would escape and go all over the place.  Still, it's really fun, and the food is good, and it's nice to share.

Delights of Summer

I've named my boat, and even got a decal with the name:

We even christened it, some friends and I, by pouring water from a waterbottle over the bow.  (This is a waterbottle boat, not a champagne boat.)  (The hardest part of the naming decal was deciding on the font.)

I sent away for new bungee cord stuff, new handles (the rear handle is missing), pieces for the paddle keeper (one is broken now), and a cover for the cockpit, so if it's raining and I have to take it on top of the car, it won't fill with water.

And there are flowers!

Crocus Smile

Last fall, I was thinking aloud (in the company of friends) about doing that thing where you put crocus bulbs in your lawn, and then in the spring, they come up, bloom, and die back before it's time to mow.  One of my friends suggested I do a pattern.

So I did.  Or at least, I tried to.  Using some wrapping ribbon, I laid out a smiley face, and then worked around it planting the little bulbs.

Behold, smiley face.

Then I took away the ribbon and we had that little winter thing.  You know, with the cold and arctic blasts and such.

And now, the snow's gone, and things are starting to come up.  But, naturally, not all at once.

So here's the same patch of lawn:

If you embiggen seriously, you can see three very tiny bits of yellow.  On the left, just a bit directly towards the camera from near the tip of the shadow, there's a tiny spot.  On the right, if you work forward from the tree in the back, there's another spot, and then forward more, another spot.

I had bags of mixed crocus bulbs, and it looks like the yellows came up first.

You can also see that I pruned some of the lower branches of the tree (it was getting too difficult to mow near it, and getting in the neighbor's way, too).  But mostly you can see that the tree isn't leafing out yet.  Nothing is.

And do you wonder, as I do, what caused the optical illusions of curves in the vinyl sidings of the houses?

Edited to add:  I took another picture this afternoon, and there are a few new blossoms showing up!

Hope for Spring: the Artichoke Saga

Back in October, I posted a couple pictures of artichoke plants I'd brought in, hoping to keep them alive for the winter.

Poor artichoke plants!

In November, suddenly a bunch of the outer leaves died off.  I was sad, but hopeful that the rest would survive. 

And then in late December, the rest of the leaves started to die off.  Happily, in early January, the friend whose expertise with plants made growing artichokes in this climate possible was by, looked at the plants, and diagnosed them with spider mites!  SPIDER MITES!  Ugh.

So, in desperation, I went to the local little hardware place and the hardware person helped me get a dormant plant spider mite insecticide, which I sprayed.  And then I waited.  And things seemed a bit better, so I waited.  After a couple of weeks, there were little leaves starting from the center again, so I cut away the deadest of the old leaves and sprayed again.  And then I waited some more.

Today, I cut away the last of the dead leaves and took a couple of pictures.

Now if you compare them to the October pictures, they look awfully pathetic and sad.  But if you compare them to how things looked in early January, then they look pretty hopeful.

As my friend pointed out, it's a good sign that they're putting on new growth.

She also pointed out that since the other artichoke plants we've grown have been first year plants tricked into thinking they're second year plants, if these plants make it into the spring looking this good, then I'm way, way ahead of the game.

Looking at the October pictures, I realize that I didn't take a picture of the light set up.  In those, there's one bulb.  But early on, my friend suggested that one wouldn't provide enough light, so I moved a different lamp there, one of those lamps with five bulbs on sort of moveable stem things, all of which are now lined up and pointing down at the plants.  They're also right in front of a big window which does afford some natural light, though it being winter, not much.

Back a couple of months ago, my neighbors were going to drop off their dog for the weekend; usually, in winter, the dog's crate goes right in front of the picture window where she can see out at the birds and the neighbors.  But because the plants are there, I asked them to put the crate in the summer spot (which is fine, but doesn't have birdTV and isn't in direct, hot sun to keep her from overheating in summer) because of the artichoke plants.  And she was so funny about asking if that was the light that's always on in that window. 

Yep, I'm growing artichokes, but I think my neighbors thought I was much more interesting agriculturally.

As you can see in the background of the first picture, I've also forced a couple of bulbs.  The hyacinth did great, one is pretty much done flowering, and the other is in full bloom.

The crocus seem to have died, but the daffodils seem to be starting.  Here's the currently blooming hyacinth.

I'm at that point of winter where I can't quite believe that it will ever be warm again.  But yesterday, I went out in the afternoon (about 4pm) to try to see the local snowy owl (no luck), and realized that it was light until WAY later than it had been in January when I went out to try to see it and it was getting dark by 4:30 or so.  So there is hope, right?

Midwestern Tough

 

A couple of springs ago, I planted some violas in my yard for that annual flower happiness they bring.  But a year ago this spring, I got some marigolds and put them around, and this year I used the seedlings from those marigolds.

 

But this viola started up in a container with an artichoke, and thinking it was pretty, I didn't pull it.  And now, despite a few weeks of chilly mornings, it's still flowering.  After each hard night frost, I look out, and think, aw, it's dead now.  But then when I get back in the afternoon, it's back looking lively and flowery.  So I leave it.  But I haven't done anything to take care of it since the artichoke with it died some weeks ago now.  Still, it goes on, flowering like it means it.