I Come to the Garden Alone…

I got up very early this morning again. I have been finding it difficult to adjust to the Daylight Saving Time switch, even after two/three weeks. I hate the change. I’m a very light sleeper anyway, and the time change just makes it worse.

Well anyway, to every cloud there’s a silver lining, right? This morning, the air was warm (40 degrees) and the birds were cawing (lol- we’ve got a lot of crows here). Well, I did hear a robin or two, so I ventured outside with my camera. I thought it would be nice to give you a glimpse of what Upstate New York is looking like right now. So let’s go together, and see! (UGH, I sound like Mr. Rogers! :-p )

This is one of my favorite places to walk through. I call it my Secret Garden. It’s a narrow area on one side of the property, about 40 feet by 20 feet. I’ve shoehorned a garden in it. It’s a work in progress. Eventually the lilac trees and the Rose of Sharon will form a hallway on each side of the arbor. The arbor-vitaes in the back will give me some privacy from the parking lot next door.

Isn’t that green vibrant? I didn’t do anything to heighten the color with my software. I’m really liking my new Kodak z1012 camera. I’m still learning how to use it, and once I do, I’ll post a review of it.

Here’s the view from the other side of my Secret Garden.

My precious tulips are coming up! They are Darwin Tulips- great big pink heads on thick green stems. I love these.

Here’s my Mugo pine, sloooooly making it’s way vertical. These things grow so slowly, like a half inch a year?!

I walked along the property, surveying all the back-breaking labor gardening that my kids that I have to do this season. My outdoor kitty, Milo, followed alongside. He’s a little camera shy- but he’s a fluffy orange cat with one eye. He looks like a pirate. My indoor cat, Livvy, spotted him and me as we strolled by. She’s obviously jealous. Not of me- of Milo, who gets to roam free in the open frontier, while she is stuck bemoaning her captivity from the inside of windows.

She has no idea how easy she has it, being inside. Otherwise, she might wind up a pirate with one eye, like poor Milo. It’s a cruel, cruel world out here.

Milo and I coldly left Livvy wailing in the window and walked to the back.

Uh oh. Someone left the vegetable garden gate open again.

The kids weeded the veggie beds for me last fall, and they did a terrific job. Usually in the spring, the snow melts to reveal a thick, lustrous carpet of dandelion plants, burdocks, and quack grass, which we have to pull out before tilling the soil. This year, everything looks so neat and tidy.

But much to my utter surprise and dismay, I found….

GAH! Already?!?!

I need to fill the bird feeders again. It’s mostly crows around here and I absolutely despise the nasty birds. They’ve chased off the songbirds. Only the robins dare tread the property.

About this time, the paces of the cars picked up on the road, subtly informing me that the busy world has begun its day. Enough photo-snapping for today; time to get on to more important things. Like fetching Livvy’s breakfast…. lol!

Thanks for joining me on this morning walk.

*hums Won’t You Be My Neighbor?*