April 17, 2006

• spring comes to adifrentdrumrland

   

  
  

  

  
  

  the view from my bathroom window

  
  

  

  
  

  Today I am taking a break today from yard work, housework, and life in general.  My knees have been killing me, and as I fully expected, my poor out-of-shape body is rebelling in a big way to my return to warm weather activity levels.  So I am have been spending today mostly in bed, the only way I can really keep the legs elevated to the proper level and mostly immobile, so things have a chance to heal and come back stronger for me to get back to work tomorrow.

  
  

  But that doesn’t mean I don’t get to enjoy the fruits of my labors… I have a lovely view out of virtually every window in the house.  While designing my landscape, I specifically made plans for things to look good not only from outside, but from the inside looking out. 

  
  

  And today I was treated to a beautiful sight — the crabapple trees literally burst into full bloom! So I took these pictures out my bathroom window:

  
  

  

  
  

  the view from my bathroom window

  
  

  

  
  

  close up of crabapple blossoms

  
  

  Beside being beautiful in the spring, and the centerpiece of one of my favorite garden beds, this tree is very special because of the story it has to tell.  When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a crabapple tree in her back yard (next door) She had either planted the seeds, and grew two little trees, or dug up little trees that had grown underneath from fallen fruit, but one way or another she ended up with two little crabapple trees growing in paper cups on the window ledge in her breezeway, where there were always all sorts of plants in all stages of growth. 

  
  

  One day, when the trees had gotten big enough to plant outdoors, she brought them to us and told us that they were for me and my brother — ‘our’ trees.  Mine got planted outside of my bedroom window, which was right next to the bathroom window, and the larger one, my brother’s, got planted outside my parents’ bedroom window.  And now, some forty-odd years later, they are still there, blooming beautifully every spring, and making loads of little tart fruits that the deer feast on in the fall.  My parents’ old bedroom is my bedroom now, and my old bedroom is currently storage, but ‘my’ tree has grown to where the branches hang down over the bathroom window.  They seem to have some kind of ‘blight’ or something that is common to crab apples around here, and lose most of their leaves mid-summer, but are otherwise growing strong.

  
  

  This north-eastern side of the house is virtually hidden from view from most directions, unless you are right out there in it.  There is a clear view of it from the windows, and also from my hammock in the back yard,  but the cabana and the spruce trees block the view from the road and the neighbors beside and behind us.  It is a moist and shady area, and has become one of my favorite garden projects. We call it ‘the enchanted forest’. It’s beds and borders contain a variety of shade loving perennial plants with all sorts of interesting colors shapes and textures of foliage, and a changing show of blooms through three seasons.  And then, like magic, all but a few of them disappear into the ground for the winter, only to re-emerge again in the spring.  Right now, the very earliest of them are making their appearance, and the first blooms on this side of the house are courtesy of two little pulmonarias and the crabapple trees.

  
  

  The enchanted forest also features a stepping stone path leading to a bench in a nook under a spruce tree, a low rock wall around one bed along the fence, a rustic birdbath, and a variety of whimsical lawn statuary.  The main feature is the ‘drum circle’ — a group of fanciful drummers: metal and resin fairies, gnomes, and forest critters, all playing different kinds of drums, and a pair of flying pigs dancing in the center.  This ‘drum circle’ has been growing over the years, as I find more drummers to add.  I have been haunting the garden sections of the stores already this year, looking for this year’s offerings, but have found no drummers yet.  I think I will eventually add some white gravel to the circle, after I refresh the mulch on this bed — it has gotten far too thin in places to do its job of keeping weeds down and moisture in.

  
  

  I get a big kick out of seeing these little drummers every time I look out the bathroom window, year ’round.  Here is a close up of the ‘drum circle’ from my bathroom window today:

  
  

  

  
  

  one of the frogs is lying down on the job — it has been a bit windy

  
  

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, I have a big pile of dirt to deal with.  Last week I got a truckload (9 tons) of topsoil delivered, and the first projects of this year involve moving a lot of it around.  No wonder my body aches!  I planted 4 semi dwarf apple trees along one side of my driveway, and when I clear out a little more of the dirt pile, I have one more apple tree to go in that spot.  I also planted a second weeping willow down by the creek, since the other one did so well there.  I filled in some holes and low spots in the lawn along the side of the driveway where I planted the trees, and spread grass seed on a big section of it (about 1/3 of the total area which is needs to be re-graded and seeded)  Next I start work on the butterfly garden which is going to be at the end of the driveway where we park. 

  
  

  And of course, in between working on these projects I have been doing all the regular chores involved in waking up the yard for the summer — weeding and raking the established beds, picking up the sticks and limbs that fell over the winter from our old swamp maple trees and spruce trees, and spreading fertilizer with pre-emergent weed controller in the established beds.  I have been raking leaves from around foundations, getting the hoses out and hooked up, and the patio furniture out of the cabana and onto the patio.  Yesterday we got out the two push mowers, and started one up and mowed the small patch of lawn next to the breezeway door where the grass always grows higher and quicker than everywhere else.  Next I need to mow the back yard inside the fence, where the dogs have been ‘watering’ it.  And the riding mower will probably come out next weekend…

  
  

  More photos to come soon…

  
  

  

  
  

  I hope you are enjoying the arrival of Spring, Dear Reader.  Have a great day and a better week!

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 5:04 pm
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