More June garden club walk

Talk about curb appeal. This pretty bank of rock, perennials, daylilies and shrubs runs along the highway for about 200 feet. Simple but elegant.

When visiting gardens for the first time, I tend to photograph unusual things that catch my eye.

In the photo below, a thrifty gardener created an old fashioned well from chunks of used concrete.

This succulent tower was made from an old 60's style kitchen chair frame and a piece of wood to give height to the back. Wire mesh encloses sphagnum moss and holds the plants in place.

A Toad Hall resident sits in this sunny garden.

This is a catalpa tree. Very striking.

WINTERLUDE

We have had so much snow this winter and not much of it has melted. Last Friday the snow was over the tops of my Uggs:)

Northern Illinois isn't alone when it comes to bad weather. According to the national news, two thirds of the country is experiencing unseasonable temperatures, snows or floods. There is some good news in the forecast. The jet stream has shifted and temperatures are supposed to be on the rise for most of the country.


White are the far-off plains,
And white the fading forests grow;
The wind dies out along the height
And denser still the snow,
A gathering weight on roof and tree
Falls down, scarce audibly.
The meadows and far-sheeted streams
Lie still without a sound.

~ From Loreena McKennitt's Snow

A panoramic view of the fields around my house.

Winter is taking a toll on wildlife. Deer, rabbits, and birds are not able to dig through the deep snow to reach food. I have hundreds of birds in the yard where I ground-feed to make sure the doves, cardinals and juncos get their share.

The house finches are constantly pushing and shoving to get a better seat at the table.

I thought seeing some scenes from warmer days might cheer me up. Here are a few "then and now" pictures. The snow photos were taken Thursday.


The wren house with it's tiny resident carrying home dinner.



Much less inviting now with a thick covering of snow.


Colorful helenium Mardi Gras on a bright summer day.


Now just a collection of twigs.


A clump of miscanthus amoung the glowing maple leaves.



Now only a few brown stalks remain to catch the whirling snow.


Cats have the most wonderful imaginations. Perhaps today Toby sees himself as a snow leopard. Leaping into drifts, tunneling, rolling, never bothered by the cold. I had to cut his snow time short when he refused to stop harassing the birds.

AN ARTIST'S GARDEN

This is a home from a June garden walk. I try to snap photos of elements that are unusual or interesting. With the exception of the Khlem gardens (which I will show in a future post), all garden walk yards are designed maintained by the homeowners.

A tiny bungalow with only a retaining wall and porch in front. The backyard was postage stamp size, about 20 x 30. Not really much in the way of plantings but a pleasant area with some ideas for creating outdoor living space.

Creeping Jenny trails over the retaining wall. A few flower accents and some metal artwork adds and interesting element to the wall. Shrubs are all pruned up to better show the plants beneath.



A brightly colored deck attached to the house holds some art, stuffed flamingos and an assortment of chairs and tables.




A mustard colored fence and bright stepping blocks accent the tiny lawn and a few plants.




Trellises frame the seating area and a painting hangs on the fence. Planters dot the patio and odds and ends are are positioned in any available space.





This is the garage door.




One wall of the garage is a startling blue with metal artwork accents. The stock tank is painted a bright copper and the hydrangeas are artificial.




More artwork hangs on the house’s rear wall. The woman in the white hat is the owner/artist.




A dead tree brightly painted to give it a few more years of usefulness.




A hanging swing becomes a planter.




The driveway, colorful sidewalk and boxed trees.

...hopped on the bough, then, darting low, prints his small impress on the snow ~ From Emerson's poem The Titmouse

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

We had an ice storm here on Wednesday into Thursday that interrupted power to more than 40,000 homes. My sister's home was one of them. Her family spent Wednesday night and all day Thursday wrapped in blankets in front of their fireplace. They had no electricity, no heat and no hot water.

It rained on Christmas morning and later in the afternoon the temperature dropped. The roads were a sheet of ice driving home on Christmas night. Later the snow started and we had another eight inches by Saturday evening.

In spite of the weather, our family had a lovely Christmas, eating a wonderful meal, laughing and chatting.

One of my best gifts this year has been this little visitor I call Mouse. I’ve hoped for years to attract a Tufted Titmouse to my feeders. I often see them at Severson Dells and at my father’s feeders. This is the first year I’ve been successful in bringing them to my farm. Aren’t their large, black eyes appealing?

These little birds maintain their pair bonds year round. In fact, family bonds are so strong; youngsters from the previous spring often remain with the parents and help with nesting and feeding the following year.

Females are very particular about nesting materials and prefer soft hair. People have reported seeing them pull fur from live squirrel and woodchuck tails, and from men’s beards.

The annual bird counts judge these birds to be a tentative success story. While most bird populations are rapidly decreasing, Tufted Titmouse numbers show a moderate increase. It is guessed this may be because more people are feeding birds over winter and these adaptable birds are benefiting.

The Titmouse comes to the suet feeders for Kaytee suet dough, then to the hopper feeder for shelled peanuts. I'm sure they will eat sunflower seeds also but haven't seen them at the sunflower feeders yet.


Wishing all of you a very happy New Year.
May you have and abundance of love, peace, health and comfort.

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love! ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

The legend of Father Christmas is such a wonderful old story.
The details are different from place to place, but the central idea remains the same. A kindly old man bringing rewards for good children (be they rich or poor) at Christmas.




I've heard that the chubby Santa Clause we see depicted in this country originated with an artist working for the Cocoa Cola Company. He is a much more earthy figure in older cultures that perhaps aren't so commercial.

The tradition of poinsettias originates in Mexico.
Children picked bunches of weeds along the roadside to decorate the village nativity. On Christmas day the humble weeds were blessed and turned to bright red flowers.

Christmas is the time for all things gaudy, glimmery, and glittery.

Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making. ~Leigh Hunt

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus

Blowing snow has erased the rest of the world and left only this row of trees along my fenceline.

The first winter storm of the season brought a foot of heavy, wet snow.
Its weight bent my lilacs to the ground.

Color disappears in a snow storm and the world turns to black and white...mostly white.

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm.
~ Emerson

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.
Christina Rossetti

A Hairy Woodpecker female.
Heavy snow creates desperate times for the birds.
Their survival may depend on the kindness of people.
I always put out extra suet and seed
so they won't run out of food while I'm at work.

The Downey Woodpecker female is similar in color but smaller
than the Hairy Woodpecker.
Her beak is much shorter than that of the Hairy Woodpecker

A tiny Junco.

A finch huddles against the chill wind.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

I'm varying my usual Wednesday posting because I won't be online tomorrow.

Another set of photos saved from a June garden walk. I horded these away thinking they would be fun to bring out on cold winter mornings.

The snow is beginning to fall in earnest this morning and blizzard warnings for tonight. It seems a good time to let the mind drift back to a sunny, warm June day.

Tinker's Cottage built in 1865 is now a museum. The grounds feature a small heirloom rose garden maintained by one of the local garden clubs.

A new vegetable garden has been added and it features these unusual trellises for growing vine crops.

If I don't look out my window at the snow piling up on the lawn, I can almost believe it might be June...almost.