Life In The North Country

Just when I thought all the different varieties of Daffodils had bloomed, these small white flowers opened:

They look much like orchids and are perhaps my favorites of all the varieties:

Alongside a nearby road, I saw large, wet areas filled with Marsh Marigolds in bloom:

This road is rife with wildflowers every spring, so I make sure to pay it a visit. Here's a close-up of a Marsh Marigold plant:

And on the same road each spring, I also find huge quantities of White Trilliums, officially and accurately called Large-Flowered Trilliums:

They are spectacular, including some with a pinkish hue:

The town or county had mowed the edge of the road this year, yet there was still a band of Trilliums along the side and beyond the mowed strip, creating quite a spectacular display:

Back home in my lawn, Wild Strawberries began to bloom in abundance:

A new species of Violet appeared in my lawn, this one with smaller leaves and pale, smaller flowers. I went to my field guide to identify it but was unable to do so. I'll just call them the small, pale Violet:

Winthrop, New York is so small that it doesn't qualify as either a town or village. I guess that makes it a hamlet, but a new Dollar General store just opened there and local wags call it "The Winthrop Mall." I noticed the other day that they have several designated parking spaces for Amish buggies, complete with horse manure (AKA road apples) to prove they are being used:

The fantail pigeons are happy and healthy. They still have not produced babies, but I have all the birds I need and am not anxious for more:

This lady, however, is trying to have a successful nest:

Spring Planting!

It finally began warming up here and my attitude was "Better late than never." I resumed planting, beginning with two Bleeding Heart plants, a gift from a neighbor:

My PJM Rhododendron bloomed nicely:

And then it became even more beautiful:

I continued to put the Begonias, seed trays and baby roses out on nice days. They seemed to benefit from it:

And then one day I planted five of the six baby roses in the front yard, next to last year's hardy roses:

The sixth baby rose, a vigorous climber, got planted beneath the old sign frame. I'm hoping it will grow up over the whole frame. I'll cut off some of the cherry and pear limbs to give it more sun, but I want to wait until after they bloom:

Violets bloomed all through the lawn:

And Grape Hyacinths sprang up next to the bicolor Daffodils:

At close range, it's evident how this plant got its name:

And a new, fourth variety of Daffodil began to bloom, this one with small, buttery yellow flowers:

My neighbor saw me mowing my tall lawn grass and stopped to see if he could rake up the clippings for his cows. Of course I said yes:

He and his uncle raked grass clippings while my dogs watched. Only Fergus continued barking after they saw who it was. Fergus just can't help himself:

Springtime On The Farm - Part 3

A dead horse? No, a lazy horse. Remy likes to sleep inside the barn or, in this case, outside the barn on the soft, old hay wasted during the winter:

But most of the time, I can find the cattle and horses in the south field, grazing:

Jasmine has passed her due date so clearly was not pregnant. Nonetheless, she is so sweet and gentle that she's one of my favorites:

I bought these two odd perennials at Walmart and planted them. The roots did not look impressive, so I don't expect much from them. Nonetheless, they'll sure be eye catching if they do grow:

And speaking of growing, my new Tulips have blossomed so fully that the flowers look almost like Peonies. Their red color is so brilliant that the camera seemed unable to capture it:

And they were asking people to take home the leftover Easter Lilies at church. There were so many needing a home that I took two of them. Everyone assures me that they survive our rugged winters, but I'll believe that if and when I see it:

And wild Violets are in bloom everywhere in my lawn and gardens. My mother loved Violets so much that she had a small garden full of them just outside our back door. When we were kids, we used to buy fancy, domesticated varieties for her birthday or for Mother's Day - but it was always the wild violets which thrived and bloomed:

A neighbor told me that there were three baby foxes living in a collapsed shed, just a couple hundred feet down the road from me. He wisely suggested I drive down to see them as the car would be less likely to cause them to run away. I had to drive down multiple times, but I finally got to see two of the babies:

They were about the size of cats and incredibly cute. Now that I've given up on my war against them and committed to keeping my hens indoors, I hold no grudge against foxes:

One kit was shy and hid in the rubble, but the other continued to sit still:

And the curious kit watched me while its sibling peered out from the rubble:

I never saw the third kit, just the bold one in the front and the skittish one in the rubble. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful sight. By the way, they are still killing someone's chickens, for I saw the wing of a Rhode Island Red next to the kit in the foreground:

Springtime On The Farm - Part 1

After all the false starts and relapses back to wintry weather, the violets began to bloom in my lawn:

And the tulips I planted last autumn started to flower:

We had several days of freezing cold and snow, but then it began to warm up again. You can see two cows in the background:

The fantail pigeons stayed warm and comfy inside their large room. They've been nesting and laying eggs, but I've not yet seen any sign of fertile or hatching eggs:

My little bantam hens, however, have been laying nicely - and the neighbors are the recipients:

I was upset that only these few Tulips bloomed, and only one variety, so I looked up the package labels of what I planted last year. To my surprise, these were the only Tulips I'd planted. But there were lots of Iris, Lilies and Fritillaria, all of which are pushing up out of the soil and looking promising. The Magnolia in the center, however, did not live. I will replace it with something more cold hardy:

The pasture has been growing faster and faster. The herd now has so much grass that they won't even come in for grain:

I found these Marsh Marigolds in a wet spot alongside a country road. The ground right by the road was dry, so I got a closeup look:

Right next to them were these slightly different plants, with no white on the petals (they're really sepals), slightly different leaves and some flowers with extra petals. I looked them up when I got home, thinking they might be Lesser Celandine, but apparently not. I concluded that they too were Marsh Marigolds:

The spring flower season is already past in many parts of the country, but up here it's just beginning:

Spring Has Turned To Summer

The fantail pigeons have been getting bolder about going outdoors. Our beautiful weather (finally!) has helped, I'm sure:

The pigeons sometimes pick around in the gravel or the grass, much like the chickens do:

And speaking of chickens, my little flock of bantams is out and about all day, every day now that the weather is pleasant:

This hen was sunning herself, lying on her side to feel the sun's warmth. They also like to take dust baths:

I had a weed and rock patch in the middle of my side lawn. I put the rocks in a big circle and then planted a hardy Magnolia in the center. Around the young tree, I planted Iris, Rugosa Roses and Rose Mallows. If they all grow, I may have to move some things. Notice the chickens in the background:

Here's a little weedy patch - weedy but beautiful. Ignoring the blooming white Narcissus when I snapped the photo, I focused on the wild Dandelions and Violets:

The first of the Flowering Crabs began blooming just as some of the apple trees were beginning to flower. The second Flowering Crab had not yet begun. Both quickly burst into bloom and then it was all over. Spring was both late and brief this year:

I used to have a gigantic stump in the middle of my lawn. It was perhaps ten feet high and six feet in diameter, so covered with vines that it looked like a haystack. It occurred to me that it might be so rotten by now that I could simply knock it over with the tractor and haul it away, so I gave it a try:

Knocking it over was easy, but hauling it away was a lot of work. Nonetheless, I finished the job and will have an easier time mowing from now on:

I saw this hillside covered with white Trilliums along the road and pulled over for a closer look:

They were spectacular, with huge, white flowers:

This species, Trillium grandiflorum, is sometimes called  Large-Flowered Trillium. It's an appropriate name: