For the first time in several years we have an abundance of apricots! Of course the nicest ones are at the top of the tree... Everyone is getting their share, birds, squirrels, us and our neighbors (who took home 3 - 5gallon buckets) so it looks like time to make some apricot jam and apricot/pineapple jam. It always feels like a little bit of summer when I bite into a fresh, hot biscuit with real butter and homemade apricot jam. How can you beat that on a cold winter's day?

Lavender Lilly

What a lovely morning! I am so far behind in posting pictures on the garden but it will happen in due time. This morning wasn't perfect for a picture of the lilly but since we have had so many days of hard rain and hail I thought I'd better grab a shot while the blooms were pretty! It looks pink, in the photo, for some reason, but it is pale lavender. Now to sit back and enjoy my coffe before heading to work...

At the end of May we took a trip to Oregon Gardens Resort. What a great trip! From start to finish it was a trip worth repeating! Rather than stay on the main freeway through Portland, we took off toward Government Camp and took a byway toward Silverton and chanced upon a Bear that was as surprised to see us on his road as we were to see him! No time to even take a picture! What a beautiful creature who thrilled us and made taking an earlier wrong turn worth the back tracking. The scenery was, well serene... The weather was perfect. Mount Hood was really showing off it's late spring, snow covered slopes, as we meandered our way along the highways and byways.

It's "Garden" Time!!

At long last we are ready to plant the raised beds. We let the beds settle for a couple weeks after tilling and also had them covered with landscape fabric to help them warm up. Seeds do so love warm soil! I spent a few hours moving all the little flower seedlings out of the two main beds and into the narrow, back bed that runs along the fence. The neighbor came out to let me know she had dug the grass from her side of the chain link fence so she could enjoy the flowers I had planted. How sweet of her! Her efforts are so appreciated! We started several herbs and vegies from seed this year as well as some flowers. There will be lots of transplanting to do this weekend! As we are still getting freezing temps. at night we will only put in the more hardy plants and seeds in one of the beds. Once the apricot tree has had a bit of trimming we can move the portable greenhouse over the other raised bed and get a few, less hardy, plants and seeds put in. In the mean time we can enjoy more spring flowers while we wait for the tasty bits from the garden.

Special Apple Tree

What a nice evening we had! The apple tree in the back yard is in full bloom and the air was full of it's sweet fragrance. This tree is special in so many ways... It's parentage can be traced back to the trees planted in our family orchard in 1957. After we left the farm my uncle took some of the full grown trees to his place and they survived! He then took bud grafts, raised more trees and now my cousin (his son) has a small orchard of the Stark's Red Delicious, and my tree came from my uncle in 1980. I hope to pass on a start of this tree to my family some day.

Better off Potted

Since I have a smallish yard and space for flowers is limited, I have kept a few of my favorites in pots. It's handy to move them inside of the little greenhouse to move them along in cool weather, I can move them around to spots that need color when they are blooming and move them to the back yard when they are done. It's also a good way to keep plants that like to spread, like mints, where they belong, at least for awhile! It's also a great and easy way share a favorite plant/flower. Lillies and day lillies seem to do best in pots, but I also have iris, ivy, varigated vinca, various sedums and herbs. I learned one lesson the hard way regarding ceramic pots... be sure they are well drained and are sitting on gravel or up off the ground a bit. Lost one of my favorite pots last year when it froze and broke. I am keeping most plants in plastic pots and set them inside the  ceramic pots for the summer. Plant a few annuals around the edges or back fill soil to the pots edge; you'll never see the plastic and you can empty and store the ceramic for next season.

Super Moon

Saturday was the "Super" Moon! What a great night for it, at least as far as pictures go. The clouds rolled in and I thought picture taking would be a waste of time. Boy was I wrong! I got several very nice pictures and what started out as a cloudy night was the lead in for a beautiful Sunday.

Senile Citizen

My Dear cousin sent me this message today...

I spent Saturday in the back yard potting plants.
I lost my gloves first. It took me 45 minutes to find them.
Then I lost my trowel, which showed up in the kitchen.
I guess I went in for coffee and left it on the bar.
After locating all my tools,
I couldn’t find one of the special plants I wanted to repot.
I’m sure that I’m a “Senile citizen”!
I can, however, remember in detail my 2nd birthday party!!!

How Dry I Am!

While the mild winter has made it easy to get around town and such, it sure has me worried about the coming spring and summer. Last year we had record rain in the spring and early summer which was great for the wheat farmers but not so great for my home garden. As I have heard the old timers say "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." I guess I'll just enjoy what we have and hope the apricot tree has some fruit this year! In the mean time I've enjoyed many beautiful sunrises. Every morning brings the promise to a wonderful day.