🐟 Fish Story and Farm Flowers 🏵

Hello there, did you have a good weekend?  We had a very pleasant one.  Story time - the evil blue heron captured and gulped down it's gullet all but one of our koi.  BAD heron!  So, this big guy has been the lonely.. at least I think he is.  

SO.. on Friday we decided to brave the world to run some errands.  We wore masks and used Clorox wipes on our hands after each interchange - first stop the Post Office to pick up Friends of Multnomah Falls mail - wipe wipe.  Then to get our car washed - they have set up a self-serve pay system so they don't handle our card.  Wipe, wipe.  Then a drive through lunch, more hand wipes.  Then to the credit union drive through to fill our wallets back up.  While waiting a LONG time for the guy ahead of us to finalize his transaction, we see 5 cop cars racing by headed east.  Then, the same cop cars racing west.  Sirens wailing.  It looked kind of crazy.  We heard later there was a shooting not far from where we were.  SHEESH!  Then we headed to a little koi shop to buy a few more friends for the big guy.  We were careful there, it was empty except for the owner, we wore our masks and didn't touch anything.  And we came home with these three guys.  One last stop at the grocery store to get an Easter ham.  What an adventure.  All rules were followed, so please don't chastise us.  :-)

We put the bag down into the pond for the water in the bag to come to temperature, left it there for 45 minutes.  Our big guy seemed quite interested in the little wiggly guys in there.  After we let them out, we haven't seen them since!  3 days!  But I think they are hiding until they feel safe to swim about.  I googled it and they could hide for up to 3 weeks!

Now another story - many years ago while I was volunteering in the Visitors Center at Multnomah Falls, a couple came in and the woman was looking at me and then came up and told me her name was Brooxie and she read my blog and when they came to Oregon for a visit she wanted to visit the falls and say hello.  What a neat surprise!  After that we began playing Words with Friends together and kept 10 or so games going at all times.  She was a good match and played well and beat me on a regular basis.  We were also Facebook friends.  We played on Friday.  On Saturday as I was scrolling down my FB news feed I was shocked to see that she had passed away unexpectedly.  I was so sad!  I will really miss my daily games with her and am so glad we got to meet.  :-(

Looking down our driveway, the red Azalea is at it's peak bloom.

This big bush never fails to produce a beautiful show each Spring.

I walked around the farmyard to see how the flowers were doing and this Rhododendron was the first to bloom.  The buds are pink but they open up to a creamy white.

What wonderful flowers they are!

This bush is 10-12 feet high, the one next to it with the deep pink blooms is 15+ tall!

I walked out into the pasture and snapped this photo of the wild cherry tree in bloom, the weeping birch behind it.  The driveway into the Bates Lavender Farm is right across from our drive.

A closeup of the Cherry blossoms.. soooo pretty.  This is a wild cherry or a bird cherry.  Which means it's a wild tree and what cherries it produces are gobbled up by the birds, which is fine with me that we're feeding the birds.  We have several of these trees on our property.

This is the BEST year for the Creeping Speedwell, aka Veronica Repens.  Dayle actually laid down on the grass to get this photo.  Aren't they cute?  I've entreated him not to mow the grass for a while so we can enjoy these.  These are tiny flowers.

You might walk right by these without seeing them, they are itsy bitsy.  Here is a closer view (thanks hubby for getting these for me).

I had to crop a larger photo to show you a closeup of them.

They remind me of orchids a bit, very close up.

The Double Golden Kerria Globe Flower.

Our garden beds had soil heaped in them, so Dayle brought his tractor around and shoveled off the excess and made a pile of it next to the Rhodies for using to fill some of our flower pots. (A wide angle shot from iPhone.)

I also had to "suggest" to Dayle not to mow the beds of Star of Bethlehem here and there in the farmyard.  In his defense the leaves come first and could be mis-identified as grass.  The blooms are just adorable.

Do you have these where you live?

Another plant that my dear husband mowed down before it bloomed for YEARS.. this Bluebell!  Ever since I illuminated him on what it was, he's left it to bloom and each year it's gotten bigger.  I love it.

One of my Hosta is coming up nicely.

A wide angle shot from under the gazebo.  The Corkscrew Willow at the top of the photo came from a bouquet at my Dad's funeral.  My daughter took the arrangement home and called me to tell me that the twisty stick in the vase was putting out roots!  I suggested that she plant it so she did.  She gave it to me and I planted it next to our pond and here it is, getting quite large!

Our Easter dinner for the two of us.  A baked ham and I boiled some little Yukon gold potatoes and when they were nearly done I added some frozen peas.  When they were done, I drained them and I poured in almost 2 cups of milk, a half of a stick of butter and some corn starch and stirred them until thickened.  Some salt and pepper and voila, dinner!  My mom grew a garden and I will never forget her "creamed new potatoes and peas" straight from the garden.  The earthy flavor of the potatoes was aMAYzing!

I've got 6 flowers with leaves and 7 tiny pale yellow flowers for my garland project.  This is a great project during our confinement.  I crochet a few during each day.  

I took down the Easter decorations off the dining table today.  Time to streamline things.  A new tablecloth and very little else besides the candlesticks on there.  

I hope I haven't bored you to tears with all my photos and text.  LOL!  Dayle is out on the deck putting our outdoor fireplace together.  Time for me to go out and check on his progress.  

((hugs)), Teresa :-)