Screaming in the night

No, it wasn't me watching a late-night scary movie. The action was all in my backyard thanks to what sounded like 100 raccoons fighting amongst themselves at 1:00 AM. Seriously, how can they make those blood-curdling screams? And why? Were they so thrilled to find so many things in my garden to trash? Look, pond plants to throw onto the gravel! Bird feeders to raid! Let's open this one with our creepy little hands and scatter the contents! Knock over that birdbath! And that one! Just for good measure break this!

Really, I'm so over raccoons. I grew up reading Thornton W. Burgess and all his lovely tales of the animals in The Green Forest. Bobby Raccoon was naughty enough back in 1950, these guys would be the updated version. Bawby Bad-Az and his Marauding Thugs.

Yeah I know they look cute but have you seen the teeth on those guys? I'd be just as likely to chase a mountain lion out of my yard - which is to say I wouldn't. And especially not at 1 AM. There could be all kinds of creepy stuff out there. If there were fairies in my yard they'd be dead.
I can't think of any good reason for raccoons. Can you? Wait, I just thought of one.

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Untwining the vine

 

Have you ever untwined a Morning Glory vine? I just did. It had wound its way up to the top of that black iron railing and was then waving in the air going 'where to now?' Meanwhile I went to an outdoor flea market and found this tuteur thingy. It's so tall I couldn't get it all in the photo. It has a fleur-de-lis at the top but you'll have to take my word on that. I thought it would be perfect for the morning glory but of course never considered how I would actually get it in there. There was only one answer: untwine the vine. That was no fun. But I did get it in the tuteur. Where it immediately started pouting. There's a lot of that going on in my garden. 

The good thing is I got one blue bloom before the untwining began. I'll hope for more.

Water and tears

So, a couple of weeks ago I discovered that the main water line into my house had broken. No big surprise since the house is over 50 years old and those old pipes don't last forever. Water leaking into the basement was a nasty surprise but what was worse was the knowledge that the backhoe was going to tear through two of my front flower beds. First I pouted, then I cried. When I was done with that I started digging up what I hoped to save. A giant miscanthus was tops on my list. I love the feathery fronds it gets in the fall and holds all winter. Yeah, I could have bought a new one but what if I didn't get the same one? Aren't there a lot of varieties of miscanthus? I didn't want to take that chance so out it came, along with some Jupiter's Beard and lots of salvia. I also saved a couple of rose bushes. Then the backhoe arrived.

I discovered that a four foot deep trench in your front yard looks ten feet deep. Look at all that clay. The backhoe compressed it even more.

When the main line was completely replaced this is what I was left with. Oh, notice the neighbor's scarred-up grass across the street? He had to replace his main line last fall. It's catching.

The original round bed that was ripped out was only about four feet across and now I had a long rectangular bed of hard-packed clay soil. Across the sidewalk next to the house was where the roses had been and that bed size stayed basically the same size. With the help of my young grandsons who are always ready to dig, we worked several bags of Claybuster amendments into the soil. And here is the finished bed.

There's the miscanthus in the middle, I hope it makes it. It was pretty big to be transplanted especially in hot summer temps. I added several blue fescue and a couple of Karl Foersters. Look at this cool rock we found at the stone yard. It has a nice little indentation which catches water and makes a nice bug bath, or more likely, a spot for rabbits to take a drink break while they munch on my plants.

I re-used my fake rock which was originally used to cover the copper sprinkler valves. The sprinkler system got updated at the same time but there's no way I'm getting rid of that rock as that baby was pricey. I pretend like its real.

I was looking for some kind of yellow flower for this bed at the garden center and had put some coreopsis Moonbeam in my cart when I spotted Sol Dancer. It's a newish plant and I can't remember the Latin name but I'd never heard of it. Neither had anyone at the garden center. It's kind of wildflower-looking with a rosette of grass-like leaves at the base and the flowers on long wands. I dumped the Moonbeam since I'm not that fond of it anyway. The rabbits like this new one so I may not have to worry about whether it will survive the winter.

I also can't remember the name of this plant which I rescued from the old bed. Maybe I never knew what it was. I do like the cone-shaped soft pink flowers.

And this is the other bed next to the house. I put the old roses back in and added a new David Austin Jubilee Celebration which is not at all happy. I hope she gets over pouting. I did.

 

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Happy Birthday, America!

A day late but trying to figure out how to use Blogsy to blog from my iPad. The founding fathers only had to worry about creating a country, unhindered by technology!

 

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Christmas past

When Dear Son visits my house after Christmas and sees the decorations still up, he always says, "You're living in the past, woman!" So true. But gosh, it took a long time to put up, and it's no fun to take it all down. The older I get, the longer and steeper the stairs seem as I haul bins up and down one by one. I might start today, I might not. When I was little, we never took our Christmas trimmings down until after the Epiphany on January 6th. Nowadays, in Denver we get a pass that lasts until the annual National Western Stock Show is over, sometime near the end of January. Come to think of it, maybe I'll start today. Here's what I'm taking down.

The tree, of course. Why do I keep adding ornaments? I have 40 years worth.

The lighted wreath in the window. I love this cozy spot. But I've learned not to rest my head on the pillow with the chunky glass rhinestones. Ouch.

 

 

Hmm, the mantel. I'm not actually taking this down since the lights stay up all year. I just don't turn them on. I might take the snowy bough out of the canoe since it will look weird there when it's 95 degrees outside.

 

 

The Garden Santa is busy working below the trees in my bird hallway.

He carries a topiary, a hoe, and a shovel. And of course is wearing the approved Garden Santa straw hat.

 

 

 There are a few nests and eggs for him to tend to also.

 

 

Oh yes, the Christmas Village. My niece says this is Mesa Verde style. I think she's right. Some years I put a few houses under the tree but this year it's the cliff version, with a mountain stream running below.

 

 

 

 

Dining room table with reindeer and glittery cones. I love these guys with their wreath necklaces.

 

 

This is the forest tree in the kitchen. It's full of birds, acorns, pinecones, and icicles. Also a couple of bears thrown in - it is the forest, after all.

 

 

 

 

I like to decorate the whole house but this year I ran out of energy. The farthest I got from the main living areas was the end of the hallway. Sorry, bathroom and bedrooms.

I almost forgot that I hung these peacock glass balls from the chandelier. I was glad the thread didn't break and drop the balls in someone's cup of cocoa.

 

 

This wreath is all silver glittery stuff . At least it's close to the stairs. I might be able to just pitch it over the railing and into the bin below. I think I'd better get started so I don't end up living in the past.

 

 

Thanksgiving

So I took the day off before Thanksgiving to clean my house. This is a big deal for me as I only "clean" before relatives visit or if I'm hosting dinner, as I was this year. I woke up full of energy to clean bathrooms, but got sidetracked immediately when I decided I needed something festive on the front porch table to welcome guests. I wandered around the yard snipping evergreen boughs and stuck them in this planter which also holds a dead buddleia. I figured the boughs would cover it up okay, and added a few peacock feathers for good measure.

Ready to clean the bathrooms, but wait, I'd better do the pies first because what's more important? Doorbell rings, and its the UPS man with the cute little pie cutters I ordered from Williams-Sonoma. I didn't expect to see them before next week. I'm so excited I start cutting out acorns, maple leaves, pumpkins, and turkeys. How cute is that?

Here's the pie ready to go in the oven.

 

 

 

Finished baking pie, then look at the instructions for the pie cutouts. Oops, I was supposed to brush them with a wash of eggwhite and water mix, and bake them SEPARATELY on a cookie sheet and then place them on the finished pie. Oh well, it still looks pretty good, but maybe a little brown. Good thing I put those tinfoil-piecrust-cover-things over the edges before I put the pie in the oven.

 

 

I still can't get excited about the bathrooms as I'd rather work on the dining room table decorations and figure out what plates to use. Hmm, the only tablecloth that will work with all three leaves in the table is a Christmas tablecloth. I'm sure I have a plain white one but I can't find it so this will have to do. And what about the dinner plates? They're a little small for a feast so I decide to use chargers under them to hopefully catch the overflow. I go to the basement and look for chargers. I seem to have them in red, brass, and also silver. I must have gotten a good deal on these after-Xmas some year. I decide on the deep red.

Gourds and pumpkins are the centerpiece, with a few pheasant feathers thrown in. Why not?

 

 

At the top of each charger I add a glittery acorn. Now, I realize I could have used these for napkin holders, but seriously that would have taken a lot of time. Besides, I used paper napkins (the store brand calls them "elegant" napkins) and they don't deserve the effort.

 

At midnight, I clean the bathrooms and give thanks that I got it done.

Lighten up

I've always wanted a chandelier in the garden and I found one last summer for 50 cents at a garage sale. Pretty simple but the price was right so I put some green candles in it and enjoyed the whimsy of it the rest of the summer. And the squirrels didn't bother it so it was a huge success all around.

Now that I've put so many things away for the winter it ocurred to me that I could keep my chandelier up and put battery operated candles in it and I would be able to enjoy it every winter's eve when I came home from work. Since it's pitch black at 5:30PM. Here it is.

It hangs near all the birdfeeders which is the preferred gathering place for the neighborhood squirrels. Actually I might as well call them MY squirrels since they all congregate at my house. Hmm, I thought, maybe this isn't the best place for it. Just because they ignored green candles, wouldn't they think the lighted candles would be wonderful for illuminating a midnight snack? And shouldn't they go ahead and chew on the candles since they chew everything?


So I moved it up to the overhang of the patio roof. It will keep my skyrocket junipers company. And maybe the squirrels will leave it alone. Or maybe I should lighten up on the squirrels? I don't think so.

All tied up

The Skyrocket junipers normally live out in the yard in the summertime. So I don't forget to water them in the winter I haul them up to the back porch and line them up like sentinels. I tie them up too. Otherwise the snow will weigh down the branches and they will never have their pencil-shape again. I know because I was too lazy to tie up a big one a couple of years ago. It no longer looks like a pencil. Since I took this picture I did finish tying up the other two.

 

I thought it would look pretty cool to add pinecones around the base of these. The squirrels thought so too and everyday when I come home from work I find a few cones scattered around the ground. Would I expect anything less?

Fall on the front porch

This is what it looked like before the mums and ornamental kale started fading (well, before I got tired of watering the potted plants).

 

 

Nice pumpkins, huh? And I do like that crow.

 

 

Uh-oh, a pumpkin smasher on the loose? That also eats Indian corn?

 

Uh, no, just my usual nemesis.

What plants are these?

I was in Tulsa last weekend visiting my daughter and am mystified over the plant I.D. on these guys. The first plant is about 2 ft. tall and has fuzzy green leaves like lambs ear. Next, a small bush with all the various shades of leaves. Last, the stripey-leaf plant mixed in with the petunias. Any help?