Notes From Here And There

The pigeon parents with the cubbyhole nest raised a healthy baby:

The baby did so well that one day I found it on the floor, attempting to begin its adult life. It was, however, being bullied:

I put it back in the nest, but it jumped right back out again. It's doing fine, though, and already indistinguishable from the adult pigeons:

Another pair picked an awful place to nest, crowded under a beam and full of poop:

But so far they've been excellent parents and their two babies are growing rapidly:

Both parents take turns keeping the babies warm and feeding them:

The little hens would like to get outside, but I can't let them because the foxes would eat the hens and the hens would eat my seedlings:

I get a few green and pink eggs each evening:

A friend from choir is an artist and, after visiting the farm, painted this for me to hang on my wall:

The Mock Orange finished its blooming season and began dropping petals so fast that it looked like it had been snowing:

Apparently this bi-colored Iris was the last Iris of the season:

The Morden Sunrise rose began to bloom:

A Season Of Great Beauty

The cherry tree is producing fruit nicely, but I have been here long enough to now realize the birds will probably eat them all long before they ripen:

The little climbing rose, called Darlow's Enigma, is living beneath the former farm sign framework but certainly hasn't grown much:

The other five new roses have more sun in their spot near the county road, and they seem to be doing better:

The Mock Orange bush never reached its full potential this year, but I'm not complaining - it was still beautiful:

The Ninebark bush truly outdid itself this year:

I was mowing the lawn on the north side of the house when I noticed this lovely scene and stopped to take a photo of it:

Alas, that's when I noticed that the Prairie Rose flowering crab tree has got some kind of disease again this year. It has almost no leaves left:

My crowded little Iris and Lily garden is so full of plants that it's a wonder any of them can live. One Oriental Poppy is blooming this year and the Blue Sea Holly is going gangbusters:

The old fashioned rose I started with a shoot from a bigger rose began to bloom nicely:

And the white Peonies were spectacular:

There was also one red single Peony which I planted two years ago:

I often take pictures of nice dawn skies, but this one may top them all. I was putting the little horses out in their corral just after 5:00 AM when I saw this sky:

Fabulous Flowers

I cut back the Rugosa roses almost to the ground this spring, and my efforts began to be rewarded with this, the first Rugosa blossom of the year:

The Ninebark buds began to open:

And the giant Iris, which I planted two years ago, blossomed. This was a bi-colored flower, and the small, yellow one behind it is the old fashioned type which came with the farm:

A giant purple Iris, so heavy the stem fell over:

And a giant pink Iris:

And my old fashioned white Peonies started blooming abundantly:

They are having their best year ever:

 The old fashioned rose which I rescued got cut down to the ground this spring and hasn't bloomed yet this year, but its offspring, started by putting a cutting in the ground with a bottle over it, is blooming nicely:

A close-up:

One of the two Morden roses I planted last year is already putting on a show. This is the Morden Blush variety. The other variety is budding, so should bloom soon:

The Mock Orange bush burst into bloom:

I collected some of the flowers in a vase and took them to church. Alas, I learned that Oriental Poppies wilt quickly when cut. Besides the Poppy, I included Peonies, three varieties of Iris, Mock Orange and Ninebark:

A Snowy Farm - Part 2

I was taking a walk around the farm house and barn, snapping photos of the wintry beauty (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). These were seed pods on the huge lilac bush in front of the house:

 And just across the driveway from the lilac was this Eastern White Cedar:

 Another view of the Eastern White Cedar, a tree which seems almost magical to me:

I walked out into the road for a view of the farm house and lilac bush:

 And I had to tromp through knee-high snow to photograph the Mock Orange bush. It's hard to imagine that this will be covered in beautiful white flowers in the spring:

The dogs were wishing they could come with me, but they had to wait in their fenced yard:

 I again trudged through deep snow to get a closeup of these apple branches:

 I had plowing to do, so I put the bucket on the tractor and began moving snow. When I noticed the snowy cattails along the gravel road, I drove to them and climbed down for a closer view. Alas, the snow disguised the deep drainage ditch beside the road and my right foot suddenly sank through the snow and ice, landing in the cold water beneath it all. The ice surrounded and trapped my leg, requiring quite a bit of struggling to extricate myself:

My foot was now soaked and cold, but I photographed this snowy Red Pine before I went back indoors:

And on the way back to the house, I photographed my own cattle on the east side of the barn. I put their bale feeder there in cold weather so the barn will break the chilly west winds:

I parked the tractor inside the barn, but first I snapped one last picture, showing the piles of snow I'd moved with the tractor:

Flowers, Spent And Otherwise

Once the flower petals fall to the ground, some plants still continue to offer a kind of beauty. This is Ninebark, prettier after the flowers were all gone than it was when they were in bloom:

 The remnants of the Snowball Bush flower clusters:

The Old Fashioned Rose, with a few rose hips already forming:

 The Bridal Veil Spirea, like the Ninebark, is bright red after the white flowers are gone:

 The Peony remnants are always big and colorful. But are these sepals or specialized bracts? I suspect they are the sepals, but I can't be sure:

 Green stars left behind on the Mock Orange bush:


 I was out in the pasture, searching once again for one of the horses' muzzles, when I spotted a small wildflower which was new to me. I took some photos, then looked it up in my old college field guide:

 It was a member of the Snapdragon family with the unfortunate name of Swamp Lousewort:

And in the same family, an especially healthy Butter-And-Eggs plant grew by the fence:

A closeup of the Butter-And-Eggs flowers:

The Morden Sunrise baby rose was blooming again:

 And so was the Morden Blush baby rose right next to it. These two roses seem to be prolific bloomers. With their cold hardiness and relative lack of thorns, I think they will be favorites for many years to come: