peace on earth, goodwill towards men

wordless wednesday

packing it in

It was in the 80s last week .It almost seemed that winter had passed us by, but this is Cleveland. The sun slipped behind the clouds on Friday and probably won't peek out again till April or May. The temps dropped into the low 40s and the rain came. The rain will eventually stop when the snow arrives. Time to take the vitamin D pills. Also time to bring in our lawn statuary.

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

Alright, you can have the pumpkin

But please leave the ligularia alone. They're still in bloom.

 

wordless wednesday

Oh deer

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to us that we have deer in our yard every day.  We followed the check list for the wildlife habitat certificate. The more visitors the better, once you open the door everybody’s welcome.  We have enough plants in the yard that if a few get eaten; we’re the only people who notice.

What is surprising is that Bambi or Thumper, or Sneezy (I get my movie characters confused) visit during the day while Pat and I are relaxing in the yard.

Bob eventually saw the deer and started barking. Fred joined in because as always, he thought the house was under attack. The deer figured it was time to leave.

can't get fresher than this

It was pouring rain when Pat and I went to the Ohio CityFarm Stand.  We’ve been going there weekly since it opened last year. Check out the link. It tells the story much better than I can.  Imagine our chagrin when the farm stand window was closed. Sean, the farm's manager, had told us that as long as someone was there, he would pick for us.  The benefits of being one of the regulars is a cool thing.  The vegetables we got were literally on the plant till they were picked for us.  

the garden is happy

It’s rained twice in the last two weeks.  Between the rain and our watering, we have kept the garden in remarkable shape. I can’t say the same about the pots on the deck. No matter how much we watered, the deck pots never took off, so that’s the last I’ll mention them.
The hibiscus plants (or is it hibisci) and all the various rudbeckia have never been bigger.  The beds we built last year need thinning. We’ll use the extras to fill in the beds we built this spring.  Who would have thought that the beds would fill in so fast? It’s got to be that fine Ohio product, sweet peet.
The back yard is awash with all kinds of bees and butterflies. They literally cover the marsh milkweed and ligularia. You can hear them flying around the yard. A patch of rudbeckia has popped up that we had given up for dead. The rabbits eat them year after year. That’s why we moved the few we had left to the front yard. This spring we over seeded what was left of the yard with a clover mix, the clover took and now we see rabbits eating clover at all times of the day.
People at work sometimes look askew when I tell them that my favorite thing to do at home is sit in the back yard. A couple of my colleagues came over to work on curriculum. We worked outside and then they understood.

 I've always wondered where all my hosta flowers went. Now I know. They must be tasty.

 I am hoping that the clover will eventually overwhelm the grass. 

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

Cleveland Garden Walk

This past weekend was Cleveland’s Garden Walk.  Pat and I walked two of the neighborhoods last year and had a blast so this year the only decision we had to make was which neighborhoods we were going to visit.  It’s always fun to visit gardens. I always see something new and marvelous. One of the coolest places to visit was the Ohio City Farm. We’ve been buying produce from its farm stand for the last couple of years. It is a wonder, fresh produce grown almost in the shadow of the Cleveland skyline.  I was going to take pics of the produce we bought, but we ate it all. 
Probably the most out of the way place to visit was Vintage Alpaca Farms.  It is just over the Cleveland border from the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, tucked in an industrial park. What a hoot when we found the place and met up with a bunch of garden walkers, all with “I found the place” grins on their faces

 Ready made straight rows, who would have thought?

 Come to see alpacas and you get chickens too, smack dab in the middle of urbanated Cleveland.