To Be for 180 Days

What would you do with 180 days outside of your usual routine?  Maybe some of your usual routine, but without a lot of it, too?   Link to Sleepy Bee.

I'm off from work this summer.  The garden calls.  And so does the list of previously neglected to-do's beyond the garden.  My recycle basket was filled several times today.  Link to busy bee with pollen baskets (yellow spot on his leg).

...there are some flights scheduled.  Link to hummingbird and beans.

And this is just a reminder to pay attention!  Link to danger bee.

Covered Wagon Cloche Returns

Since I came home Saturday with some tomato plants, they needed a home.  I prepared one of the garden beds and moved the cloche frame in.    See these links to part I and part II of the cloche's first days.

Inside the cloche, I planted the tomatoes and mini bell peppers.  Outside of it, I planted broccoli and Flashy Trout's Back romaine lettuce.   Then I put the plastic in place using the clips from Japan.  The photo, above, is before I closed the ends.  

That's a large Oriental poppy seen through the other end.  It's not yet blooming like Alison's. 

Here it is closed up for the evening.  On hot days, I don't open the ends all the way.  I undo a clip at the top of each end which opens up a "vent" simply due to the way the plastic fits over the frame.

This same frame recovered from this snow damage and here too.  

New Cloche Clips

Molly - I have my own Japanese clips!  These are on the cloche (more on that tomorrow) in place of the clips in this post. 

After seeing Molly's clips when our SAGBUTT garden bloggers group went to her garden on Tiger Mountain (see this link), I asked my Japanese connection about them. 

My friend from Japan mailed me some.   They are clothes pins for hanging laundry on bamboo poles.  I will be able to thank her in person when we attend her wedding later this year.

While my old clips were ok, they were damaging the plastic covering and they were hard to use when wet or cold.  These new clips are very easy to use.   And now I have a whole garden bed planted, including some tomato and pepper plants in the cloche.

Life's Shower

 Life's Shower

These valves are here for you today

Which wheel to turn is yours to say

Your choice is right

There is no wrong

The flow from each makes mankind strong

(seen along the street in Puyallup, WA)

 Love - Patience - Mercy - Tolerance

Honesty - Faith - Peace - Hope

(I took a long shower in patience, mixed with faith no one will get hurt and a twist of all others to prepare for being an adult volunteer for a project this evening...)

This sign was also nearby.  It is DH's favorite: 

Tiny Tomatoes

The tomato seeds I planted on Saturday spouted, one on Wednesday and two more yesterday.  These are Golden Jubilee, from Matron.  I'm hoping for a really long summer so it won't matter that these are just getting started. 

I'm hoping for sprouts from the Queensland Blue pumpkin seeds.  Since I cannot find my seed starting book, I checked some internet sources and confirmed that squash & pumpkins don't want light to spout.  I've left them in the warm spot under the sink. 

Now to keep this indoor garden pest from from finding them.  Actually, I'm keeping them under a clear cover to keep them warm, yet near the kitchen window.

Seed Oven

For seeds who don't want light to germinate, this is where I have the most luck.  It is under my kitchen sink and warmed from the heat duct that runs underneath the space.   I just have to check it every day to see if anyone has sprouted because all of the seedlings do want light.

And for my friend in Kansas where the temperature is in the 90's - it's not here! We still have the heat on.

Magic May Day Porch

The May Day surprises on my magic porch - lucky bamboo and a begonia!  The hummingbirds will line up for this begonia.  

Things appear on this porch.  It goes with my magic kitchen window that makes plants happy and magic seed-sprouting oven under the sink and above heater duct.  With lucky bamboo in the house, I'm watching for new paint on the magic walls.

I followed these instructions for all of my excursions out of the house today, too.

Thank you to the magic May Day fairies!

Evening Visitor

My neighbors called with a surprise this evening.  They had a rufous hummingbird in the garage and he wasn't leaving.  I don't blame him.  It is cold outside.  He flew around us, and the warm lights. It didn't take him long to find the feeder we put out for him.  I think he has done this before.

He was very colorful, as we could see while he was flying, but not in the photos.  He'll probably be on his way north tomorrow.

Here is the link to the hummingbird who visited our barn in 2007.

Future Tree Frogs

 April 28 - One tadpole, many almost tadpoles.
They are likely related to the frogs in this link.

April 7 - Frog eggs

April Blooms and Bees

This smaller cherry tree made it through the snow and ice earlier this year.  I know the bees and hummingbirds are missing our 3 large cherry trees damaged by the ice.  See them in bloom in this link.  We had to cut them back significantly so no blossoms this year (but a few new limbs are sprouting now).  

The mason bees are busy today.  Here is what their house looks like.  The fruit trees are blooming too, so they must have what they need.

Star magnolia.