The Fullness Of Springtime

The north country may seem as if it's all snow and cold, but springtime and summer are glorious. My PJM Rhododendron began to drop its flowers but the old fashioned Iris right behind it were getting ready to bloom:

I found these wonderful wildflowers, called Bird's-Eye Speedwell, in my lawn:

They are showy and hard to miss:

Growing all around it was its miniature relative, Thyme-Leaved Speedwell:

My red Flowering Crab, which is intertwined with a wild Golden Delicious apple, put forth buds:


So I clipped some off, put them in a vase and took them to church:

The Lilacs not only began to open, but also to perfume the yard. Some of them also went to church:

The little chickens are happy and healthy:

And very friendly:

The first apple in the grove to bloom was the tree in the corner, next to the power pole:

Apple blossoms are surely one of the greatest joys of life on the farm:

And then the whole grove began to bloom. I took this photo from inside the horses' corral. The farm house is on the other side of the grove:

The State Of The Perennials

I took a walk around the yard to see how the perennials I'd planted were doing. The Blue Moon hardy Wisteria was awake and putting out leaves. It's planted at the base of a power pole, which I hope it will grow up on:

 The only plant I lost over the winter was a Mandarin Honeysuckle, so I ordered another one. It's still brand new, but already looking better than the one I planted last year:

Last year I planted a red Hydrangea and had some doubts if it would live through the winter. It did, however, and leaves began emerging this spring. Will I see flowers this season? It would be nice:

 My little rock garden is filled with lilies, iris, tulips and a few oddball perennials I planted last year. They all seem to be growing wildly, but especially the Asiatic Lilies. In fact, they seem to be reproducing and may soon take over the whole area:

 A favorite wildflower which grows in the lawn is Birds-Eye Speedwell, a colorful little plant with flowers about the size of small violets:

They are  adaptable plants, growing taller if not mowed but OK with growing shorter if mowed:

And a related wild species, the much smaller Thyme-Leaved Speedwell, growing all over my lawn:

 Thyme-Leaved Speedwell is so tiny that it's easily overlooked. Both species of Speedwell are members of the Snapdragon family:

 One of the two Ninebark bushes I planted last year is doing extraordinarily well, and showing the brilliant leaf colors it is noted for. The other Ninebark, which got a fungus last year, is up and colorful, but still struggling (that's it in the little fence behind the bigger one):

The old fashioned yellow and purple iris are beginning to bud, so I'll soon have them to look at. They were here when I moved in but seem to be doing better because of the compost I've added to the soil:

 You may recall that I ordered 14 fancy Day Lilies from an online nursery which were on sale because the varieties were discontinued. They sent extra, presumably because they were on sale and they wanted to get rid of them. All of them are growing. I'm keeping them more or less weeded for now, but when they grow up, they'll have to hold their own against that tall grass behind them:

Spring Flowers And Farm Critters

In the winter, I sometimes have trouble coming up with enough photos for blog posts, but once spring arrived, I had the opposite problem - so much to post that the photos began backing up on me. Of course time becomes a problem in the spring. The white Fantail Pigeons began nesting:

The Easter Egger bantams began laying, then became broody:

The cattle and horses continued to come into the barn each morning for a bit of grain, but once the grass was green and lush, I had a hard time getting them to come at all:

They preferred being outside and dining on green grass:

Blue and Remy kept an eye on the little white calf, Lucky:

And everyone enjoyed lounging in the sun. You can see the black calf, Elvis, on the left because this photo was taken before I put him in the barn for bottle feeding:

The bi-colored and yellow Daffodils faded away and then the pure white ones bloomed:


And they sure were beautiful, looking almost like orchids:

The hardy Magnolia I'd fretted over and transplanted last fall put out one flower bud, way down close to the ground. It didn't even have leaves yet. I noticed in this photo that it needed more soil around its base, so I did that right away:

Mowing the lawn, I saw these minuscule flowers and remembered identifying them last year. I couldn't recall their common name, though I remembered the word "Thyme" was in it.

So I went back to last year's blog posts and found that it was Thyme-Leaved Speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia):

The old fashioned Lilac buds were just about to open when I snapped this picture: