Thursday, April 8, 2010

Dogwood Winter

Yesterday I chatted with the lady, who with her husband, owns the local seed and fertilizer business. I discovered she has a love for gardening and being familiar with our little farm she wondered if certain of the trees and shrubs were in bloom on our side of the hill.
I mentioned that dogwood was one of the trees new to me and she replied that an old local saying calls a cold spell after many warm spring days "dogwood winter."
Sure enough, we woke to a chilly morning of rain.
The rain is a timely blessing, watering our new-seeded hayfield and the early garden seeds.

It was one of those days when the world shimmers wetly in various shades of fresh new green, and listening closely one can hear things growing.
This tall shrub is just outside the sliding doors in the dining area. Perhaps when it blossoms I will recognize it.

We headed for Lowes Home Improvement to choose flooring to replace the elderly carpets throughout the house.  The Tom turkey was shepherding his harem toward the woods when J. stopped the car for a better view.  When I use the camera's zoom, I momentarily "lose" the object I want to capture.  The turkeys took advantage of this and my only photo is of the last hen in line and the Tom stomping behind with his tail feathers in display mode.

Since we hadn't taken Snort'n Nort'n, it took us two trips with the Rav 4 to bring home all the flooring. We thought to buy it for one room at a time, but discovered that the Pergo laminate we decided to use was on sale---so--back for the second load after lunch.
The cats felt they had been terribly neglected.  One of them had found a length of ribbon trailing from a carrier bag in my closet. A tug of war was staged for our enjoyment.
The striped mat is thrown down on the faded and grubby carpet--you can see why we are anxious to replace it.

At the north-west corner of the house two of these bushes are in bloom in spite of the cold snap. The wind was tossing the slender branches so that my photo blurred.
I'll get a better one tomorrow and hope for identification.

5 comments:

  1. My goodness! You certainly don't let grass grow under your feet -- so to speak. You have accomplished so much in such a short time. The pink flower is what we call pink lady but everyone else seems to have a different name for it. The dog wood is a beautiful sign of spring, and the cats look like they have thoroughly settled in.

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  2. Hey MM ~ came by to catch up with you! Everything looks GREAT!
    Love your new place! XOXO :)

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  3. Hmm, the carpet...I think I had it's twin in our old house :D

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  4. I know that pink flower .... I am sure I had one of its family in my old garden and it had tiny black berries after the flowers (not edible ones)....its name will come to me.
    I am so impressed with all that you are achieving on your land ...love the folk law re weather forcast.

    You probably know this but watch the cats with thin ribbon ....they cant chew it off in bits so they keep swollowing it and it can cause problems ...I managed to get an end ...thinking it was a tiny bit but 3ft later I retrieved the ribbon ...I was so lucky I did it gently !!!!

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  5. MM, I think your pink flowering shrub may be a Viburnum. Maybe Viburnum Burwoodii, Carlesii (sp?) or Bodantense. They are quite similar. They are deciduous and have balls of small, sweet smelling white/ pink flowers. As Angie says, there may be black berries in the late summer.

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