Sunday, February 6, 2011

Brave little Flowers & Growing Things

Hi there and thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Gosh it's been a busy week for me and it was nice to have yesterday to recuperate and rest and just hang out with hubby.  I did some knitting and crocheting and played Scrabble on Facebook (want to play a game with me?) and just enjoyed not having to go anywhere.  I have been watching the Snowdrops come up and hoping for them to open up so I could get a photo, but we got a cold snap and so they're in a holding pattern.. but I actually love them like this as they look like their name - a "drop".  We have many patches of them on this old farm-place.  Aren't they sweet?
I also love the vivid lime-y green of the moss on the trees.  Everything is drippy.. :-)
Below is my beloved stand of Black Bamboo.  I actually cut small branches of it, then cut those into short lengths of 1/4 inch and make beads out of them.. they have a natural hole as they are a hollow reed (a variety of grass, actually!), so it's really neat to string my own beads and make jewelry.  I love bamboo and have five different varieties planted here.  All are well-behaved "clumping" bamboos - they do not "run" and become a nuisance.  I have black, golden, blue fountain, variegated dwarf and one other amazingly fluffy and graceful, I must get the name of it.
Here is a bud of a Rhododendron, one of the early owners of our century old farmhouse sold nursery stock here so we have many different varieties of Rhodies and one of the biggest ones is 30 feet tall!!  It's that amazing magenta colored one.  I'll share photos of them all as they bloom.
Below are some funny hangy things (do you know what they're called?) that is on a filbert "volunteer" coming up in the middle of my 100 year old lilac.. darn those uninvited shoots.
The bearded iris are coming up!
Our Buff Orpington hen is checking me out as I take photos.. :-)  Her name is Bella.  I think! LOL  Our first Bella got taken by a raccoon, she was a Silver Laced Wyondotte and our grandson named her, so when we lost her I asked if we could use her name on the Buff.
It won't be long until we have daffodils! Woo hoo!
Below is the cutest little blue Vinca flower that bloomed by our waterfall and pond.
Below is our poor little pond and waterfall.  It needs cleaning after all the leaves have fallen in over the fall and winter.  The Blue Heron is a decoy to ward off real herons who have decimated our pond fish population.  The raccoons get what they don't.  We've re-stocked our pond at least 3 times over the years.  ::sigh::
Below is my rainbow granny stripe blanket.  It is finished except for the border - and I ordered my border yarn from a friend named Saskia from the Netherlands that I met on Ravelry - "We Love Lucy" who has an online shop named "Crafty Valley".  Hopefully it will be on it's way soon.
Well, time to heat up some burritos for hubby and I for lunch.  We made them last night for dinner - love leftovers!  Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a nice weekend, we sure are!

((hugs)) Teresa

10 comments:

  1. All flowers I won't see down here in the desert. It looks like spring is on its way to your place. I'm surprised my pansies survived that hard frost we had all week. The petunias look a little worse for wear.

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  2. Love the Granny stripe and your pictures are lovely. I love Bella! *hugs* O. xx

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  3. Teresa, the blanket is so lovely and colorful and, well, just fantastic. So nice to see something green, my gosh we've had a lot of snow here. i love your little heart up in the header now. Also, sometime when you have more of the beads you make from the black bamboo, take a photo for us to see.

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  4. how lovely to see all the things coming up in your garden, and I love the mountain photo in previous post. off to check out your crochet heart pattern, it looks gorgeous. thanks for visiting my blog. Tess

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  5. Everything looks so lush! I love all the flowers. Can't wait to see them in their full glory!

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  6. Teresa, all the pictures are great as usual... I'm so envy of all that green and the flowers and all, we are still covered in snow... I can't wait for the spring to come... I LOVE your blanket!
    Shanti

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  7. Teresa, I love this post it is so filled with Spring. We are still drab and grey in FLorida with rain and brown everywhere from the frosts we had in December. But Spring is close I can feel it. By the way love the blanket. You are so lovely,
    Meredith

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  8. Beautiful pictures Teresa! We spent the weekend driving to Helena, MT and back to Spokane to visit our son & his family for our grandson's birthday. All we saw was snow, snow and more snow. Especially on the passes. Oh and my sweet little grand-daughter shared strep throat with me too. Yippee! A trip to the Dr. this morning and I'm on antibiotics and feeling icky. Your pictures sure brightened up my day! On the upside, my Ashford Traveller Spinning wheel arrived last Thursday and it's just sitting here, waiting for me to feel like spinning. The shop gifted me with some lovely, free musk-ox down. I can't wait!

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  9. Your granny stripe blanket looks amazing, Teresa! Love the colours.

    I am so glad you were able to find a lantern that you like. Only pleased if I was of any help... The lantern sure looks good!

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  10. Your blanket looks gorgeous, the colors are amazing.

    And your hubby does most of the cooking for you now--is he for hire? lol

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