A few pictures

Just down the path along the marsh I found a bunch of wild native Columbine plants. The area was mostly mowed down last fall underneath the power lines (like they did on the hill behind my yard). Id say about 1 in 3 of the Columbine in that area have blooms on them. They are doing much better than the Columbine I have in the yard as none of mine have blooms. Im thinking that my Columbine are getting too much sun. Anywho here's some pictures.  I am so tempted to dig up some and add them to my yard but I will hold myself back, as the plants are the only native wild flowers I have found in the area that haven't been planted by a human hand.

This Columbine is not in my yard, but I sure wish it was.

Here is a Squirrel that has taken up residence in one of the wood duck houses down by the marsh.

White Throated Sparrow

Jack In the Pulpit (in my yard)

I believe this is Jacobs Ladder (in my yard)

And last, today after i weeded the paths in the middle garden bed I decided to move all the bricks that were being used as a border and set them down as a walking path. I know I should level and put sand down and get all the weeds out of the holes before its considered done, but it looks a hell of a lot better than it did before with just dirt walkways.

Surf and Turf

Some pictures I took today.

Here is a picture of a Phlox in bloom

Water Skimmer

Snail on the dead animal rotting in the water

Mushrooms

Common Blue Violet

Close up of the Plum Tree blooms

Canadian Goose

Male Wood Duck

Slime Mold?

I found what looks like a slime mold on a thick woody vine along the trail behind my house today. Not sure what it is exactly but it looks cool.

At first I thought it was candle wax but I couldn't find any of it on the ground. So i poked it with a small stick and it was squishy.

Seedlings and blooms

This warm spring we've been having is nice, im loving it, but seriously I just want to put stuff in the ground. I want to get my little plants out of their plastic cups and into the soil so their roots can grow all big and strong.
The seeds I planted  I guess 9 days ago are all comming up (well except the parsnips).  Also I cant figure out if my potato's have come up or what is potato and what is weeds.


Cabbage

Beets

Lettuce

And Swiss Chard

The plum trees are blooming! It smells so great in the afternoon!

Also I put my trellis netting up. I had to order it on-line since the only "trellis netting" i could find was basically bird/deer netting, and even with shipping was more reasonably priced. (you can sort of see it in the right side of the photo)

The Primrose

Red Tulips

Also I didnt mention this in my last post because it isnt happy or great to read or think about. I found a corpse of a dead animal floating in the marsh 5 days ago. At first because i was so shocked by what I found i thought it was a dog or a fox. But I have come to the conclusion it was probably a raccoon. Part of me wants to think it occured naturally like a fox had attacked it, tore its front right paw to shreds and tore its throat and the animal crawled to the waters edge and fell in. But it seems fishy to me. I wouldnt be surprised if someone had put out a trap, the raccoon got caught and the person threw it in the marsh.
Either way its interesting to watch it break down and the fact there is no strong odor from the animal makes investigating that much easier. Yesterday when I visited there were thousands of tiny red worms feeding on the fur and muck sitting on the bottom of the shallow area its floating it.  I just hope the thing doesn't suddenly burst open when im down there looking at it.
I will refrain from posting the pictures cause they are nasty.

Earthworms doing it

Yesterday when i was trying to rake up the leaves (the wind wasn't cooperating) from the flower beds I found something kind of awesome. Two earthworms mating.

The Backyard

Pretty much everything is budding out now, even the Wisteria on the deck has a few green buds on the vines. Here's some pictures of the yard, it looks kind of messy still but once things fill back in it should look great!

Here is a before and nearly done after shot of the last vegetable bed I am filling in with compost.

I plan to plant brocolli, beans, peas in the rows. Then put some spinach by the trellis, and okra at the far fence perpendicular to the rows.

 On the left of the photo is my grandpas very old cold frame that I wanted to use but is so rotted I think ill just make a new one.

This bed is all hostas which have really emerged with all the rain this week.

The "wild" Geraniums in the bottom right look great already.

I need to finish raking out the leaves in the beds.

I am kind of worried about my moms roses. Quite of few of them looked like they didnt make it this year. Also you can kind of make out that the plum trees have buds on them, i cant wait for them to bloom.

The rhubarb is comming up very nicely this year.

And this is in one of the beds, but I am not sure what it is since it has no tag by it. Nice looking though.

And I almost forgot. Here is what my plants i started indoors look like now. Not so sickly and little anymore.

There is oregano, cilantro, 11 pepper plants, oregano, parsley.

6 tomatos, 2 loofah gourds, 7 Eggplant, oregano. I also have a New England Aster and a Columbine. 

Some pictures

First tick of the year

Winged ant of some kind

Rabbit

Muskrat

Daphodil

Northern Flicker

Brown Creeper

Mallards

Some kind of scat. The top was very hard and dry, underneath it was runny and a weird greenish color. Not sure what made it, the closest thing i could find in my new Scats & Tracks book was that it could be Rabbit scat which they sometimes produce to eat later to get nutrients, but its pretty big.

And the compost pile